Colombia has developed a cotton/plastic blend fabric and is selling it as EcoDenim. The Colombian textile industry has suffered in recent years due to illegal imports from China and South Korea, the appreciation of the peso, increased denim competition from Turkey and Central America, and a bitter fall out with Venezuela. All these combined have resulted in a 42% downturn in Colombian exports.
Two of Colombia's leading manufacturers: thread maker Enka and fabrics weaver Fabricato, have joined forces to create EcoDenim. Fabricato's president states, "People don’t just like the product, they like what it does, which is recycle these (plastic) bottles that otherwise would take 100 years to degrade." The fabric costs 10 percent more to produce than all-cotton denim but that affords higher margins from environmentally conscious consumers.
Kudos to these two companies for finding a way to recycle our trash into a comfortable and wearable material. I'm torn on how "environmentally conscious" the product truly is though. While a pair of these jeans might actually last forever since they aren't 100% cotton (which is biodegradable), consumers will probably still want to buy a new pair of jeans at some point. In the end you still have tons of plastic waste that will take 100 years to degrade. They're just no longer plastic bottles, now you have plastic jeans.
Chris Kraul. "Colombia Counts on Recylced Denim for Revival." WWDStyle issue 02/15/11. http://www.wwd.com/markets-news/colombia-counts-on-recycled-denim-for-revival-3490047
I found this to be an interesting article, as well.
My concern was, who wants to wear plastic pants?
I personally started seeking out "green" products back in the late 90's and while a lot of great steps have been made to create sustainable healthy and even recycled products, there's a lot of greenwashing and gimmicks and fad chasing going on. I'm thinking most earth conscious consumers are not going to want even food grade plastic rubbing on their skin all day, and absolutely will not want their kids wearing it. I work in an organic baby store and we sell all organic cotton, soy, bamboo, and hemp clothing. Polyester and other plastic based fabrics have gone the way of the 8-track, as far as eco-conscious consumers go and so who are they marketing these jeans to.The average joe still doesn't care (although if you work the never breaks down angle some boomers may buy into it- and the tight-fisted usually aren't too worried about having the cutting edge styles).
If they want to make a real difference they should create a system to donate all that recycled fabric to people living below the poverty line, where long lasting clothing makes a bigger impact. Educated people with a lot of money are just not going to choose EcoDenim jeans. There are too many higher quality and natural fabrics on the market. And like Lauren said, they will want new looks long before the jeans wear out.
Before we go patting anyone on the back, how about chilling out on the plastic bottle production and consumption and coming up with a way to cut down on plastic production and consumption altogether... This jeans effort feels a whole lot like "too little, too late", and not really addressing the core of the problem... Oh capitalism.....
My concern was, who wants to wear plastic pants?
I personally started seeking out "green" products back in the late 90's and while a lot of great steps have been made to create sustainable healthy and even recycled products, there's a lot of greenwashing and gimmicks and fad chasing going on. I'm thinking most earth conscious consumers are not going to want even food grade plastic rubbing on their skin all day, and absolutely will not want their kids wearing it. I work in an organic baby store and we sell all organic cotton, soy, bamboo, and hemp clothing. Polyester and other plastic based fabrics have gone the way of the 8-track, as far as eco-conscious consumers go and so who are they marketing these jeans to.The average joe still doesn't care (although if you work the never breaks down angle some boomers may buy into it- and the tight-fisted usually aren't too worried about having the cutting edge styles).
If they want to make a real difference they should create a system to donate all that recycled fabric to people living below the poverty line, where long lasting clothing makes a bigger impact. Educated people with a lot of money are just not going to choose EcoDenim jeans. There are too many higher quality and natural fabrics on the market. And like Lauren said, they will want new looks long before the jeans wear out.
Before we go patting anyone on the back, how about chilling out on the plastic bottle production and consumption and coming up with a way to cut down on plastic production and consumption altogether... This jeans effort feels a whole lot like "too little, too late", and not really addressing the core of the problem... Oh capitalism.....
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