What Are Recycled Fabrics Actually Made From?
Fashion companies are realizing that there’s a growing number of customers looking for sustainable products. As a result, recycled fabrics are becoming more common. But what are recycled fabrics actually made from?
It may surprise you to learn that most recycled fabrics are not actually made from recycled clothes. Unlike other recyclable materials, textiles are difficult to turn back into durable, strong fabric. As a result, many of the recycled fabrics you’ll encounter are actually made from recycled plastic bottles or fishing nets. Recycled wool and cotton, while less common, are actually made from existing fabric waste – at least in part.
While it may seem like buying clothes made with recycled materials is a sustainable practice, it’s important to realize that, with the current state of textile recycling, the benefits are limited. That said, recycled fabrics represent a step forward in the fashion industry, which is notoriously unsustainable.
Photo by Ethan Bodnar
The environmental impact of recycled fabrics
In a bid to appease environmentally-conscious consumers, fashion brands are incorporating recycled materials into their clothing. For example, you might see a label that says “made with recycled materials,” or “this item was made from plastic bottles.” Consumers buying these items think they are doing something good for the planet. But the truth is almost never quite that simple.
According to a scientific review of 41 studies about the environmental impact of textile recycling, textile reuse and recycling does in general have a lower environmental impact, at least compared to incineration and landfilling. They also point out that reusing (e.g. through the second-hand market) is also significantly better than recycling. That’s because textile recycling, while better than landfilling, is not a closed-loop system; most fabrics are “downcycled,” while those that are recycled into new clothes can’t always be re-recycled.
The limitations of recycled fabrics
While fabric made from recycled materials does avoid new production (such as growing cotton, a notoriously water-intensive crop) and extraction of virgin materials (such as extracting petroleum, a non-renewable resource), it’s not a closed system. Therefore, it’s not sustainable in the long run. And no matter what fashion companies will try to make you believe, recycled fabrics still have an impact on the environment.
True, recycled fabrics result in fewer emissions than virgin ones, but there’s still a slew of environmental impacts associated with them, such as water usage and chemical pollution. Plus, given that the majority of recycled fabrics used in fashion are polyester and nylon – both of which are synthetic, petroleum-based products – microplastic pollution is just as big of an issue with recycled textiles as with virgin ones.
Moreover, recycled textiles have limited benefits. This is especially true for recycled polyester, or rPET, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. PET plastic is already part of a well-established recycling system in which plastic bottles can be recycled numerous times without loss in quality. One study found that even after 11 bottle-to-bottle cycles, quality remained high, suggesting the possibility of circularity.
Despite growing PET plastic recycling rates, new plastic bottles are still mostly made from virgin plastics. This is in part due to the textile industry’s demand for rPET fibers, which can be used to make clothes, which are then marketed as being made with recycled materials. While this is still a form of recycling, rPET in clothing cannot be re-recycled in the current textile recycling system, though innovations in chemical recycling may change that.
Even if polyester or mixed-fiber clothes get recycled by people like you and me, they’ll likely end up being downcycled into home insulation. It’s better than the landfill, but far from circular.
The 1%: textile-to-textile recycling
According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, less than 1% of textiles and materials used to make textiles are recycled back into new textiles. Though it’s such a small slice of the pie, so to speak, it’s worth touching on for several reasons. One, it illustrates precisely how non-circular the current fabric recycling industry is. Two, there is plenty of room for growth.
Currently, textile-to-textile recycling primarily occurs with cotton and wool. As with other recycling programs, the process starts with collection and sorting. This requires a tremendous amount of manpower, especially if anything has to be cut out of a garment (such as a zipper or a different type of fabric).
Cotton is recyclable, but the fibers lose their strength during the mechanical recycling process. As a result, the recycled cotton has to be spun with virgin cotton before it can be made into a new garment. That said, a garment made with even just 20% recycled cotton has a much smaller environmental footprint than one made with 100% virgin cotton, organic or not.
Similar to cotton, wool is mechanically shredded, then re-spun into yarn to be made into new garments. Wool recyclers in Prato, Italy have perfected this process, recycling tons of woolen rags and clothes each year. Plus, they do so without dyeing by expertly sorting everything by color.
4 most common types of recycled fabrics
While there are dozens of natural and synthetic types of fabrics – ranging from linen to rayon – there are only four types of fabrics that are commonly made of recycled materials: recycled polyester, nylon, cotton, and wool. Recycled polyester and nylon, both synthetic materials, are typically made from industrial plastic waste. Recycled wool and cotton, on the other hand, are made from pre- and post-consumer textile waste such as clothing.
Many recycled fabrics contain a percentage of recycled fiber plus a virgin “carrier” fiber for durability. At the moment, recycled wool is the only recycled fabric that can be made from 100% recycled wool, but even then it’s often blended with polyester or virgin wool fibers.
Let’s take a closer look at what these recycled fabrics are actually made up of below:
Recycled polyester
Recycled polyester is by far the most common recycled fabric used in the fashion industry. The growing trend is largely due to consumer demand for more sustainable products. It’s also in part a result of the “Recycled Polyester Challenge” created by the non-profit Textile Exchange. According to the company, the goal of the challenge is for the fashion and textile industry to use at least 45% recycled polyester in their production by 2025. To date, 151 companies have signed on to the challenge, 86 of which are “committed” to replacing 100% of virgin polyester with recycled polyester.
But what exactly is recycled polyester? Like regular polyester, PET, it’s a petroleum-based material. Recycled polyester, or rPET, is made from pre-consumer and post-consumer plastic waste, most commonly in the form of plastic bottles. Plastic waste is sorted, washed, and shredded into chips, which can then be melted and re-spun into new polyester fibers.
But rPET isn’t infinitely recyclable; the fibers are degraded each time they are shredded and heated. Even a garment made of 100% polyester is difficult, if not impossible, to recycle into new fibers. In other words, using recycled polyester is just delaying the plastic’s inevitable journey to the landfill. Innovations in chemical recycling may change this, but for now recycled polyester should be celebrated with caution.
Recycled nylon
Like recycled polyester, recycled nylon is a synthetic material made from plastic waste. In this case, fishing nets, carpeting, and pre-consumer plastic waste. Unlike recycled polyester, recycled nylon is not already part of a well-established recycling stream, in part because recycling nylon is more difficult and more expensive to do. In this sense, using recycled nylon in fashion, while still representing the industry’s reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials, at least helps divert plastic waste from the landfills (and out of the oceans).
However, the benefits of recycled nylon are limited: as with recycled polyester, nylon garments cannot currently be recycled back into new clothing.
Recycled cotton
Recycled cotton fabrics contain a blend of recycled cotton fibers and virgin cotton fibers. As with recycled polyester and nylon, recycled cotton is spun with virgin cotton fibers that are essential for providing strength and durability.
A recent study explored how different amounts of recycled cotton (10, 20, 25, and 30%) and sources of cotton waste (pre-consumer vs. post-consumer) affected the end product. The results showed that 30% recycled cotton still produces quality medium-count yarn. For strength, the researchers found that up to 25% recycled cotton is suitable for most fabrics, but recommended less (just 10%) for delicate knitwear.
Even though recycled cotton isn’t a circular fabric, it is much more sustainable than virgin cotton and even organic cotton. Did you know that it takes approximately 1200 gallons of water to grow a single pound of cotton? Not only does cotton farming put an enormous strain on global water supplies, but it also uses tons of pesticides and results in soil erosion. While organic cotton avoids pesticides and prevents soil erosion, it still requires land, water, and resources to be grown.
Back to recycled cotton – what is it actually made from? The largest source tends to be pre-consumer waste such as fabric and yarn scraps that are an inevitable byproduct of turning cotton into clothing. These scraps are typically clean and readily turned back into fibers. Post-consumer cotton waste, on the other hand, includes old clothes and other textiles. These have to be sorted, washed, and shredded before they can be re-spun with virgin cotton to make recycled cotton fabric.
Recycled wool
Lastly is recycled wool, a fabric made by mechanically shredding wool waste and re-spinning it into a yarn. Unlike the other recycled fabrics in this list, recycled wool can be made with 100% recycled material without significant loss in quality, though it’s usually made from a blend of fibers.
Recycled wool can be made from both pre- and post-consumer wool waste, but existing systems focus largely on post-consumer waste such as wool rags and garments. After collection, these are sorted by color, shredded, washed, and re-spun into yarn which can then be woven into fabric or knitted into garments.
While wool has been recycled for over a century, it currently represents just a tiny fraction of fabric-to-fabric recycling.
Examples of brands using recycled textiles
The above examples represent a growing demand for textiles made from recycled materials. As you may have discovered, fabric recycling doesn’t necessarily mean turning clothes back into clothes. Currently, it’s more common to find recycled fabrics such as polyester made from recycled plastic products.
But as demand grows, so does the industry. I am sure that we will see countless innovations over the next few years. Already, other recycled fabrics/textiles are popping up in small pockets of the industry. While not all recycled textiles are automatically “sustainable,” this represents a step forward for the fashion industry at large. Let’s hope they don’t stop there!
Speaking of, let’s take a look at which fashion brands are using recycled fabrics/textiles, and what those are:
Patagonia: recycled nylon, polyester, down, spandex, TPU, cotton, cashmere, and wool
H&M: recycled wool, polyester, polyamide, and cotton
The North Face: recycled polyester and nylon
Columbia: recycled polyester
Madewell: recycled polyester, polyamide, and cotton
J Crew: recycled polyester, nylon, and cotton
Gap Inc: recycled polyester
When you shop for clothes, are you more likely to buy something if it’s made with recycled materials? Why or why not?
