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Shirts made from plastic bottles (Global)

Updated: Jan 6, 2020

Innovative idea to reuse and recycle plastic bottles and create beautiful t-shirts. Plastic bottles can be used to make many different everyday items such as t-shirts, sweaters, fleece jackets, insulation for jackets and sleeping bags and carpeting. For example it takes about 25 recycled plastic drink bottles to make one fleece jacket.


Make no mistake: Recycled fabrics are the most sustainable fabrics you can find. “Ya, but recycled fabrics still use so much energy to convert old stuff into new fabric…” Yes, but they don’t use nearly as much energy or resources as creating fibers and fabrics from scratch.


Take new polyester vs. recycled polyester. Virgin polyester is made from a combination of coal, ethylene (which is derived from petroleum), air, and water, which are formed from a chemical reaction under extremely high heat (If you’re a science nerd, here’s all the chemistry behind it). It’s a high energy process that relies on even more energy and natural resources when you consider the amount of resources it takes to extract coal and petroleum from the earth. Not great.


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