So many clothing brands sell garments marketed as ‘environmentally friendly’, from fleeces made out of recycled bottles, swimsuits spun from recovered ocean plastics and natural fibres, such as bamboo, hemp and organic cotton… But it’s hard to know for sure whether an item is actually green.
Fabrics made from recycled plastics, such as bottles and ocean waste, sound like a brilliant idea. While this clothing does reuse waste, plastic fabrics – polyester, nylon, acrylic, polyamide or recycled plastics, such as ECONYL – shed millions of microplastics when worn and washed. These tiny pieces of plastic end up in rivers, lakes and the sea, are swallowed by wildlife and enter food chains. Microplastics have even been found in human food, such as fish, sea salt, beer and honey.
What shall…
