The rPET suede offers a soft, durable, cruelty-free, and vegan alternative to animal hide-based materials, coming in at 55% rPET blended with 45% island silk (a fine blend of equal parts rPET and conventionally produced PET). On average, rPET suede diverts about 4 plastic bottles from landfill per piece manufactured.
If you’ve ever wondered what gives some of your clothes that comfortable stretch factor while continuing to bounce back and retain its existing shape over time, it’s most likely a kind of synthetic material. Synthetic fabrics like nylons and polyesters are man-made polymer fibres that deliver certain unique elements of performance and functionality while maintaining their durability and elasticity over time. Polyester (PET) is the most widely used fiber, making up 52% of the total fibre market volume produced worldwide. However, such fabrics are usually derived from fossil fuels like petroleum and crude oil - producing plastic-based fibres for textiles uses an estimated 342 million barrels of oil every year! These non-renewable resources are extracted and refined through production processes that can cause irreparable harm to human health and the environment, from polluting water bodies to exacerbating the existential threat of global climate change.
Without compromising on the quality, fit, or technical performance of your garment, we use different blends of recycled polyester fabrics to produce Primal Gray garments. Recycled polyester, also known as rPET, is created by mechanically recycling plastic waste in the form of discarded PET bottles originally containing water or other drinks. In comparison to virgin polyester-based fabrics, rPET from postconsumer bottles produces 37% less carbon emissions per ton of fibre. This is equivalent to:
- - Charging a smartphone 182 times
- - 6 kilometres driven by the average gas-powered car
Compared to virgin polyester, rPET has a
59% lower energy demand for every 1 ton of rPET, or 15.55 kilowatts per hour per ton of fibre kWh - about the equivalent of keeping on an incandescent bulb (for 2 hours per day) over one month. Along with being far less resource-intensive compared to its virgin counterpart, rPET also
diverts upto 3133 plastic bottles from disposal in the landfill per roll of fabric produced, with the potential to
slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 66% .Our rPET fabrics are all certified to contain a minimum of 20% recycled materials by the
Global Recycled Standard (GRS) GRS confirms a responsible use of resources and processes that have the least possible impact on human health and the planet.
