Eco Textiles (part 2)

In part one we asked the question "How sustainable is Bamboo fibre" and although all the claims are out there we see little or no evidence that the crop is being grown or managed in a sustainable way.

This time I want to look at recycled polyester or rPET as it's know in the trade.

Synthetic fibres are the fibre of choice in textiles with 65% of all fibres used being synthetic against 35% coming from natural sources and of all the synthetic fires approximately 70% is polyester or PET of which 60% of PET goes into textiles with 30% going to bottles.

It's claimed that around 100 million barrels of crude oil is used to make virgin polyester each year, that means around 70 million barrels goes for textiles.

Nearly all recycled polyester comes from the bottle stream; the main reason for this is because the bottle grade is basically not contaminated like textiles. Most textiles will have some finishing chemical or coating on it or could be mixed with other fibres such as cotton or nylon that renders it unfit for recycling.

So why recycle it?

1.    It's claimed that it takes less than half the energy requirement to process 1000kg of rPET than it would to produce the same amount of virgin polyester.

2.    It stops it going to landfill where it would take thousands of years to decompose

And how much ends up in recycling? 

We all put our boxes out each week with a mixture of tins, glass, plastics and paper however America, one of the largest users or plastic bottles, only recycles around 6% of all their plastic, the remainder goes to landfill and this is in a country where the population is relatively well educated and its easy to recycle. If that could be moved to 15 or 20% think of all the barrels of oil that would save?

The down sides of recycling.

1.    The problem with making rPET is this:  recycling, as most people think of it, is a myth.  Most people believe that plastics can be infinitely recycled  – creating new from old. The cold hard fact is that there is no such thing as recycling plastic, because it is not a closed loop.  None of the food standard bottles that are collected from you are used to make new food standard bottles, because each time the plastic is heated it degenerates, so subsequently the polymer is degraded and can’t meet food quality standards for these bottles.  The plastic must be used to make lower quality products.

2.    Using recycled polyester for fibers also creates some problems specific to the textile industry:


The base color of the recycled polyester chips vary from white to creamy yellow so dyers are using chlorine-based bleaches to whiten the fabric.


Inconsistency of dye uptake makes it difficult to get good batch-to-batch color consistency.

3.    And as mentioned earlier, most fabrics have a coating, chemical finish or are blended with other fibres that make recycling the polyester unachievable.

4.    And there is another consideration in recycling polyester: antimony, which is present in most virgin polyester, is converted to antimony trioxide at high temperatures, which as are necessary during recycling, releasing this carcinogen from the polymer into the atmosphere.

So;

1.    Is Polyester recycled? Technically no because it isn’t being recycled, it’s being changed and made into something else.

2.    Is it helping to resolve landfill issues? Most definitely yes. Polyester takes thousands of years to degrade and even then will leave residues that could be harmful.

3.    Is it cutting pollution? Yes, in both oil usage and CO2 emissions using half of that used or created by the manufacture of virgin PET.