Eco-Centric
Patagonia leads the way in promoting recycled fabrics
Apparel manufacturers are increasingly adding recycled polyester to their garments, but according to Jill Dumain, environmental analysis director for Patagonia, the Ventura, Calif.–based outdoor clothing company, Patagonia is the only one in the United States to operate its own recycling program.
The California Apparel News spoke with Dumain about the Common Threads Garment Recycling program and how it works, both at the technical and public levels.
CAN: How did your recycling program begin?
JD: We’ve had environmentalism as part of our company since the beginning. It really began with our giving away money, and that’s how the company was known for its environmental work. In the early ’90s we commissioned a study and looked at the four main fibers we used, with polyester being the biggest from a quantity standpoint. We got feedback on the problem areas with the different fabrics, and looked at what we could do as a company to lessen our environmental footprint.
The information was given to us in the format of what the impacts were, and then the degree of control we might have with that impact. So, with polyester, you’ve got oil extraction and refining, and we’re just a small clothing company, so we’re not going to have a lot of impact on changing that. But there was the option to use recycled polyester, so that was a way we could address the impact without having to try to change the oil industry.
So, we started using recycled polyester in the early ’90s, but it was still a very linear supply chain, using plastic bottles that were crushed, melted, and re-extruded to be made into polyester yarns for our products. We did that for a long time since that’s what technology allowed us to do.
Then we started working with a company in Japan called Teijin Fibers that has become our partner. It has taken the recycling of polyester one step further, and instead of just the mechanical process of melting bottles, it went back to chemical recycling, in which they take polyester and break it down to the raw-material stage. Working with them was very exciting because we now had a whole new category of product we could make.
Then Teijin shared with us what they were doing with recycling, not just plastic bottles, but taking back uniforms of municipal workers in Japan. That set off the light bulb for us of why can’t we do that with our polyester garments?
It all came from our desire to lessen our impact on how we’re creating products, but also put us on the path of taking responsibility for our products.
CAN: How does Common Threads Garment Recycling work?
JD: It’s our asking our customers, “When your product is worn out to the point that its useful life is over, bring it to us because we’re gathering everything up and shipping it back to Japan to be recycled into new polyester.”
We have collection points at our retail stores and wholesale dealers. People are also able to mail their garment in, which we’ve encouraged for people who aren’t close to a drop-off, because of the environmental impact of driving. We definitely looked very hard at the energy used by the collection process and shipping to Japan so we’re not negating the benefits of recycling.
CAN: So dropping off or mailing in a garment is at the consumer’s cost and is their contribution to helping the environment?
JD: Right.
CAN: What is the environmental impact from this? The more polyester that’s recycled, the less has to be made through a process that contaminates the air? Or is it saving discarded garments from landfills?
JD: It’s really threefold: It’s reducing our dependency on nonrenewable resources, reducing the energy load, and reducing the amount that goes into landfills.
CAN: How much have you taken in since the program began?
JD: About 1,000 pounds. We’re not being overwhelmed, but that’s okay. We want garments to be used to the fullest extent, and have a filtering process that will take out usable garments and put them back into the system.
CAN: Have you sent the collected garments back for recycling yet?
JD: We are waiting for an amount that gives us the most efficient shipping over there. It’s a bit of a luxurious position we’re in with this program, because Teijin has raw-material resources from Japanese municipalities, so we already have recycled content going into the product without being dependent on our own collection.
CAN: Do you only take Patagonia garments, or will you take anything?
JD: Currently only Patagonia, but we have plans to expand.
CAN: Are there other ways people can recycle polyester garments?
JD: Not that I’m aware of.
CAN: So you’re the only one in the U.S. doing this?
JD: Yes, at this point I don’t know of anyone else.
CAN: How has the public and the apparel industry responded to what you’re doing?
JD: We’ve had a lot of phone calls from different brands asking how they can participate. Our partner Teijin Fibers is very open to working with other companies and setting up a program that will work for them.
CAN: What is the nature of your partnership with Teijin?
JD: It’s a supplier-customer relationship. They’ve been producing fabrics we’ve been buying for 15 years. Now it’s more of a partnership: They brought an idea to us about where they were going, and we went back to them and said we’d like to do this. The partnership was figuring out how. There were legal obstacles about getting garments back into the country, as well as logistical issues.
CAN: How does the actual recycling process work?
JD: A worn-out garment is chopped into little pieces, then it goes through a physical process of turning it into little pellets. Then a chemical reaction takes place—de-polymerizing—turning it into a white powder. Then you have the building blocks of polyester, and the next step becomes chips that are the same quality as virgin polyester. Then it’s refined into a spinning yarn.
CAN: What’s the cost difference between virgin and recycled polyester?
JD: Recycled is more expensive right now.
CAN: You’re not fond of the term “Earth-friendly.”
JD: It doesn’t really give you any information. And the definition can vary so much from one person to the next. We use the term eco-fibers.
CAN: Even if they’re man-made?
JD: That’s right. Eco-fibers is our general umbrella that at least gets the customer recognizing, “Okay, there’s something different here; let me learn a bit more.” Then they can dig in a bit more and see that we’re giving them organic or recycled.
CAN: How does Common Threads fit in with Patagonia’s broader eco initiatives?
JD: Our mission statement—“To make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”—is a pretty unusual mission statement for a clothing company.
It’s almost an experiment on how we can push the envelope from an environmental standpoint and still stay profitable, which is important not only for the company but for setting an example, so other people will say, “That’s a really good idea and they’re still in business, so something must be working
Chemical Reaction
Patagonia partner Teijin Fibers is the world leader in recycling polyester
Tokyo-based Teijin Industries is a $9 billion company, but that doesn’t stop it from operating a comparatively small recycling program that helps the environment.
The company is on the cutting edge of recycling polyester at the molecular level, holding numerous patents on its chemistry-driven technologies.
Currently Patagonia is Teijin’s only customer outside of Japan. But that will likely soon change, according to Teijin’s New York–based representative Ricky Miyatake, whose duties include educating American apparel manufacturers about recycled polyester.
CAN: How did the company begin?
RM: Teijin Industries began as a rayon manufacturer in 1918. In 1958, the huge English company ICI introduced polyester technology to us and we launched a polyester fiber business. Now we have eight business units with annual sales of $9 billion. Teijin Fibers Ltd. handles the recycled polyester, which we call EcoCircle.
CAN: When did you start recycling polyester?
RM: 1999.
CAN: What was the reason for doing it?
RM: Our company has a policy to do something for the environment. We had already started recycling the waste from our mill 30 or 40 years ago. Then, eight years ago, we started a chemical recycling system. For recycling the waste, we chop it down to small pieces, melt it down, then spin polyester fiber again. But the new technology is different. There are two chemical technologies: One is for taking off the color. We collect old polyester garments and also plastic bottles and first remove the color. The other technology uses a chemical reaction to go back to the molecular level of polyester raw material. We call this a chemical recycling system, and it produces the same grade as virgin polyester.
CAN: What is the cost difference compared to virgin?
RM: It’s about 15 to 20 percent more to recycle.
CAN: So the advantage is for the environment, because obviously there’s no economic advantage.
RM: We don’t use new resources. Another advantage is that during this process we can save 84 percent on energy compared with making new polyester from petroleum. We can also cut three-fourths of CO2 emissions, or greenhouse gases.
CAN: What is Teijin’s proprietary product?
RM: The chemical recycling system; we’re not a machinery company. The chemistry-based technology was developed by us.
CAN: Who are the customers for EcoCircle?
RM: Patagonia is the first customer outside Japan. In Japan, we already have more than 70 customers, mostly apparel companies and retailers. But the main industry is uniforms—school, business, factory—which are easy for us to collect used garments.
CAN: Are you planning to do business with other U.S. companies?
RM: Yes, we are starting to talk to other companies.
CAN: Do you supply fabric or yarn?
RM: There are two business ways with Patagonia: The main is to sell fabrics, but the other is we sell recycled polyester yarn to textile mills that make the fabrics for Patagonia.
CAN: What is the fabric price range?
RM: From $3 per yard to about $10. The $3 fabric is single layer, and $10 is three layer.
CAN: What kinds of garments do they go into?
RM: We call three-layer fabrics “hard shell.” They’re like for rainwear. Single layer is called “soft shell” and is for, say, the face material for an insulated jacket.
CAN: Are you noticing a growing interest in protecting the environment?
RM: Yes. We attended the Outdoor Retailer Show in January, and almost all the companies were interested in eco products. But they’re a little too expensive compared to regular products, so there’s a hurdle to clear.
CAN: What will it take for prices to come down?
RM: Our capacity for recycling is small compared to regular polyester manufacturing. If you establish a new polyester company, I think you can make 3 million metric tons per month, but we can only make 10,000 metric tons per year. We don’t have any plans to set up another recycling facility at this moment. If we can increase capacity, the cost will go down.
Another thing is the price of petroleum, because the material of polyester is made from petroleum. Right now, it’s about $61 per barrel. If the cost of oil became more than $150, then our recycling system is better than using new resources.
