EKOS Communications, Inc.

Rain, clear cuts, and roadside garbage highlight my memory of riding through Washington. Of these my memory of garbage is most disturbing. A visit to Patagonia Inc. in Ventura California 3700 kilometres later gave us a look at what one company is doing not only to reduce garbage but to discard the concept of garbage all together.

Patagonia is well known among outdoor adventurers for making high quality clothing. Not as well know is their commitment to reduce the environmental impacts of each product they make. Their latest effort is a clothing recycling program. By working with the Japanese company Teijin they are now able to turn old worn out clothing into new clothing. The fist product in their garment recycling program is Capaline underwear.

When a customer’s underwear wears out they can return it to one of Patagonia’s collection depots. Patagonia then sends the underwear to Teijin where the recycling takes place. Teijin breaks down the old underwear into small pieces, melts it into pellets, treats it chemically to produce polyester and then makes it back into the original fibre ready for new clothing.

The benefits of this programme, when compared to making underwear form raw polyester, include a 76% reduction in energy use and a 71% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. In addition it saves these cloths from landfills and reduces the use of petroleum. Patagonia’s goal is to have over 50% of the material in their underwear be recycled by 2007.

This is still a long way from a closed system with no waste and 100% recycled fibres. However, designing products to be infinitely recycled is a big step for a society where 90% of what we buy ends up in a landfill within 90 days. The link in Patagonia’s recycling programme that they can not control is consumer participation. All the pop bottles and beer cans we have seen in the ditch are recyclable just like Patagonia’s underwear. Why did they end up in the ditch and will Patagonia have a better return rate? The success of their recycling program depends on us seeing our worn out underwear not as garbage but as part of the next piece of clothing we buy.