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Polyester Please

Trash 2 Cash, Polyester Please

Image credit: Pleats Please, Issey Miyake

Super-luxurious, forever recyclable, durable and robust. Think we're talking about Polyester? Yes, we are...

T2C partners are meeting in Stockholm this week to dive deeper into the potential of polyester, one of the fibres we're recycling in the Trash-2-Cash project.

Technology and design have brought us a long way from the double-knit leisure suit of the 60s and 70s, and even savvy textile fans can be surprised to find polyester hiding in a super-luxe fabric these days. Nike, G-Star, Patagonia and Adidas have used recycled polyester in sports and outdoor wear, and Issey Miyake's Pleats Please range (100% polyester) would arguably not have been possible using any other fibre. 

Some estimates put polyester as the most widely used fibre in the world right now, reflecting its low cost and versatility. But it still has an image problem.

Most of the time polyester is used (hidden) in a blend, giving strength, durability and shape retention to natural fibres. But in T2C we're more interested in polyester as a monomaterial - not a blend - because we're thinking in a circle.

Blended fabrics are incompatible with recycling techniques and we want our super-luxurious, durable and robust fabric to be forever recyclable. We're imagining a cool jacket, perfect jeans and incredibly touchable upholstery in our T2C super-fibre, and investigating what properties the fibre needs for each. 

We'll look more at polyester in future blog posts, and we want to know what you think too. Tweet us @eutrash2cash to let us know what you'd put at the top of your polyester super-fibre wishlist!