How to Reduce Plastic Waste by Ditching Recycled Polyester

We know the sound of 'recycled polyester' just sounds so sustainable and good, but did you know its not actually good for you or the environment? 

1. Reduce Wearing Recycled Polyester

Have you noticed all the big brands now promoting recycled polyester lines? It's everywhere! Brands all over the world are pushing recycled polyester, from Lululemon, Patagonia, Gap to Vuori. Trust me -- we get it!  We know these brands are trying to do good by recycling plastic bottles and trying to do something with them that so that they will not end up in a landfill. Patagonia boasted this year that 89% of their polyester clothing as been made with recycled polyester. 

The problem is that recycled polyester can cause more harm to the environment than regular polyester (which is still bad since its plastic!)  

What is recycled polyester?

Recycled polyester, is also known as recycled polyethylene terephthalate or rPET for short. rPET has a smaller carbon footprint than regular polyester, due to how its made with fossil fuels. They have found that making rPET uses 79% less carbon emissions than regular polyester. That is the good thing about recycled polyester!

Check the tags! If companies are making their clothes recycled polyester, they will boast of that. So check those lables and if they say polyester or recycled polyester -- move on! 

2. Use a GuppyFriend Bag to wash your current Polyester Clothes

Reclaiming plastic waste also keeps it from becoming trash or in the oceans... or does it?

People may see this as helping with the plastic pollution in our oceans, however; every time you wash these clothes the micro plastics from recycled polyester are going into our oceans from the water. 

A paper published in 2011 by the Environmental Science Technology found that microfibers made up 85 percent of human-made debris on shorelines around the world. 

A way to avoid this without having to throw out all your current polyester clothes is using a guppyfriend bag or another product similar. You just throw all your clothes that could shed microplastics in the wash.. and wash them in this bag that catches all the microplastics instead of releasing them into the water. 

Not only is it in our oceans but also the air...

3. Grab yourself an Air Purifier! 

I had no idea that microplastics were in our air! Read these studies below -- you will be blown away! 

According to The Guardian:

"About 335m tonnes of new plastic is produced each year and much leaks into the environment. The research, published in the journal Environment International, collected the microplastics falling onto the roof of a nine-storey building in central London. This ensured that only microplastic from the atmosphere was collected. They were found in all eight samples, with deposition rates ranging from 575 to 1,008 pieces per sq metre per day, and 15 different plastics were identified. Most microplastics were fibres made of acrylic, most likely from clothing."

They went on to say that each person eats around 50,000 microplastics a year!! I knew I was getting micro plastics in through my seafood but I didn't realize the air as well. Most of this stemming back to micro plastics in clothing. 

The air purifier I use at home is the AirDoctor. I have one in our living room and one in our office. We ensure to run this daily as another study stated: 

A global review done in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the human body.

You can find the study done here. They went on to say:

"Tissue damage may result directly from pollutant toxicity because fine and ultra fine particles can gain access to organs, or indirectly through systemic inflammatory processes."

That study also mentioned that "Harmful effects occur on a continuum of dosage and even at levels below air quality standards previously considered to be safe." So we cannot trust the air quality chart on our iphones ;) 

Always love any questions or comments you have! Happy New Year! 

xoxo LEISURE TEAM.