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RBLM Kids' Blog

Rebloomed: Recycled Fabrics and Sustainable Fashion

Chinese-Textile-Recycling-2 — Source: Global Recycling

So many of us engage in retail therapy (guilty!), but how many times have you bought something on a whim and ended up using it maybe once? (Again, guilty.) Although we all deserve a little pick-me-up sometimes, try to buy less, make your purchases practical, and buy secondhand. Before you buy, ask yourself whether you’ll use or wear it 30 times. If you likely won’t, skip it! That being said, we all need clothing. Here, we’ll delve into why you should buy clothing comprised of recycled fabrics. These fabrics are not newly created—they are rebloomed or recycled.

What Are Recycled Fabrics?

Recycled fabrics are textiles made from recovered waste instead of virgin resources. That waste can come from a number of places, including post-consumer products (like used plastic bottles and discarded garments), pre-consumer textile scraps from factories, as well as fishing nets and other ocean plastics. Rather than send this waste to landfills, where it can take years to break down, they can be processed and transformed into new fibers for textiles.

clothing recycling — Source: Retold Recycling

Why the Fashion Industry Needs Rebloomed Materials

To produce virgin polyester and cotton, factories have to use a lot of resources. Virgin cotton uses land, water, and pesticides, and virgin polyester uses fossil fuels, water, and energy. Conversely, rebloomed or recycled fabrics require less resources. For example, recycled polyester can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70% compared to virgin polyester (see source), and recycled cotton requires significantly less water than virgin cotton (see source).

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT REBLOOMED FASHION

Choose brands that use recycled materials
Instead of throwing something away, try and repair it, or find another use for it
Recycle old textiles (items that the thrift store might throw away) through programs, such as Trashie or Retold

Remember that your purchasing power makes a difference!