What Are The Advantages of rPET Felt

Using recycled PET (rPET) is a great starting point: instead of exhausting our planet’s resources and polluting nature, we can use what is already available .

Below, we count down the top 3 benefits to using rPET fabric in the clothing industry.

rPET is short for Recycled Polythene Tetraphyte, also known as Recycled PET. Due to the thermodynamic qualities of PET, it can be heated up, melted and transformed into new materials over and over. Many reusable shopping bags and totes are made from rPET, but the material can also be recycled to make t-shirts, hats, socks, shoes, carpets, fiberfill for winter coats and sleeping bags, upholstery – the list goes on. PET Plastic is out there in our environment in huge quantities; using it again is the most logical and environmentally viable solution.

Creating polyester is an energy and water intensive process that is only exacerbating the fashion industry’s impact on the environment. By 2050, this industry is predicted to still be using 26% of the world’s carbon budget.  rPet takes the plastic that has already been made into products like plastic bottles, and grinds it down into small flakes. At this stage, the flakes can be melted to separate out the PET so it can be recycled into new materials. When compared to the production of brand new polyester, rPET consumes 70% less energy, and the co2 emissions are 75% lower.

Globally, humans buy a million plastic bottles per minute. If that statistic alone wasn’t shocking enough, keep in mind that 91% of all plastic is not recycled. That means a constant flow of plastic bottles end up sitting in landfills and polluting our oceans. The last thing we need is to be creating more PET from scratch and adding to the problem. By taking advantage of the PET already in circulation to make new products, we can at least give plastic bottles a second life and stop them from polluting our planet. Even just one kilogram of recycled polyester can keep 60 water bottles from our oceans and landfill.