Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Fabric Content: Recycled Plastic Bottles




Notice the shirt I'm wearing in this photo. It looks pretty normal, doesn't it? Looks can be deceiving and I have a prime example of that for you.



I bought this shirt a couple of weeks ago at a sporting goods store. At home, as I cut the tags off, I read the fine print. "Made with 100% recycled fabric." I scowled, not sure of what that really meant. I wondered what I'd be wearing up against my skin when I put my shirt on.
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As always when I have a question, I turned to my laptop and found my way to the UNDER ARMOUR website in hopes of learning more about their recycled fabric.

I found the identical shirt shown here in green.






I was surprised to find out that UA's performance fabrics are made from recycled plastic bottles! I like unique clothes but I never thought I'd go so far as to wear recycled plastic bottles.
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I photographed this website paragraph in two parts, left side and right side. (I couldn't get it all in one photo and yet expect you to be able to read it. It's much clearer chopped in half, right!)





The fabric is extremely comfortable and looks and feels like the other high performance materials that have been on the market for several years. I'm at a loss when I try to fathom how they can make a fine fabric from plastic. The engineers must be smarter than I am, imagine that!!








I'm impressed that manufacturers are attempting to use recycled materials. Every step in that direction is a step in the right direction.










I'm all for the elimination of tags at the back neckline of shirts. Printing the information directly on the fabric makes a lot of sense to me. (It annoys me to see tags sticking up at the neck of a shirt. It's SO tacky!)
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Can you imagine the looks that the first person who brought up the idea of using plastic bottles to make fabric got from his peers around the conference table?

3 comments:

Gullible said...

Darned if I didn't just buy a reuable shopping bag in anchorage yesterday--made from ten plastic bottles! I was going to post a pix of it soon.

Hmm...my word verification is "locopall." How'd it know?

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

Technology continues to amaze me!
So true, I hate it when the tags are poping up like weeds~ eyesores!
;)

Cheryl Peters said...

GULLY: Go ahead and post the pix of the reusable shopping bag you purchased. Good news is always interesting.

"Locopall." That must have made you chuckle after looking over your shoulder!

LENORE: "Eyesores" describes rebellious tags perfectly.