Recycled polyester - it's everywhere

[waltzingparrot]

Does anyone like this material? I find it horrible to wear.

Do you think it's here to stay or is it some post covid blip, to get more clothing in the stores quickly?

I have a horrible feeling it's here to stay as a solution to climate change.

We need to use all the fucking plastic somehow!

Closed loops do help.

Cotton is environmentally pretty heavy going due to water and pesticides, so I guess any switch is good.

I'm happy with recycled polyester for some things, personally.

I don't like it and I notice they don't use it for men's clothes, apart from fleece.

It's better than new plastic I guess. The only way out is less less less at this point

Agree and cotton dreadful

I hate it. Any kind of polyester makes me sweat.

I find it horribly sweaty. Much prefer acrylic (tencel, etc) fabrics, cotton and linen.

Awful sweaty stuff. Don’t wear it.

Not a fan either. Bamboo or viscose seems like a better compromise if you're environmentally against cotton/ linen

I saw some recycled polyester dresses for over £200 today!

I've been avoiding the stuff.
Shops seem to promote it as a green option but what happens when it is washed? Do you get microplastics down the drain? I don't know if many people wash their clothes in a washbag.

Yes, there’s a lot of viscose promoted as environmentally friendly…Levano brand of viscose or something?

Personally I only wear natural fabrics wherever I can although trousers are difficult. I also cant stand polycotton bedding, only cotton or linen for bedding.

I have a levano laptop! I think it's lyocell or something. I think all clothes production is a bit shit for the environment . In terms of the resources being used up or the chemicals involved in the process or both. Really we should reduce what we buy, have small wardrobes and try and source second hand where possible.

The slightly holier than thou campaigns of clothing companies on the merits of reforming bottles into clothes that will contribute to the billions on tonnes of microplastics polluting our ocean. At best its greenwashing.

IMHO these materials don't stand up to wear and tear and wash either. They degrade. How many times can they actually be recycled, what's the cost, environmentally, of that? I still contend it's better to have a high quality item, in natural hard wearing fabric, that lasts for years and years. That's got to be better for the environment.

I read somewhere today that returned fast fashion is incinerated. Tonnes and tonnes of brand new, returned, low quality, items. Easier to burn them, than put them back into circulation. How sick is that?

Recycling is usually better than using virgin materials.

The oil used in pesticides, the water use to grow plants, the energy involved in production of virgin products is high.

Obviously if you are buying new then choosing good quality x a few items over poor quality x many items that is better - but the best thing is to choose secondhand, next best is recycled, worst is new.

Reduce reuse recycle all come before buying new.

You can get recycled cotton too, you know... Which is the best cotton you can use. You're not comparing like for like.

Unfortunately, recycled polyester clothes often can't easily be recycled... The irony. So will likely sit in landfill for however many centuries. Whereas if it was recycled into something like a plastic bottle, that's fairly easy to recycle.

It seems to be in loads of gymwear but it's horribly sweaty. I guess it IS plastic!

So far, far from perfect. Still, it's better than virgin plastics.

This article is a real (and depressing) eye opener.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/31/what-happens-when-we-send-back-unwanted-clothes#:~:text=According%20to%20anti%2Dwaste%20charity,landfill%20or%20burned%20every%20second

Do you mean Lenzing? They make ecovero which is viscose from wood pulp (apparently from sustainable forests etc)

Still have to cut down trees though, presumably.

Bamboo doesn't need cutting down so is better from that perspective.

I have this jacket. It's beautiful. I wanted a very particular style of jacket which had to be short and fitted but still roomy enough to accommodate the sleeves of a mad (cotton) dress.Baum and Pferdgarten

At that price I intend wearing it for years.

It's horrible, I bought gym leggings from Next without realising, they literally slid down my legs. It was like working out in black bin liners.

Tencel is promoted as the most green fabric Tencel

Well, "recycled polyester" is a bit of a buzz word. Throwing it in the mix earns you some green credentials, and people can feel a bit better about themselves. Not saying it's not better than virgin materials, but it's definitely used in the green washing context often.

Best choice, fashion-wise, is of course to shop your own wardrobe and wear things out. But no one is immune, me included, to the lure of a shiny new item.

Funnily enough, I did try on a love the jacket posted upthread but did not buy it because it's polyester.

I do not and will not wear polyester, so recycled polyester is just a variation on something I already say no to.

Yes, that’s it, Lenzing.

Thats interesting because I dismissed some pillow cases in a shop the other day because it said it was Tencel, but then reading the packaging it said it was 50/50 poly cotton, so I assumed Tencel was another name for poly cotton?