Everlane Is Making Outerwear From Recycled Plastic Water Bottles
Everlane, an apparel company headquartered in San Francisco, is changing the way consumers shop with their philosophy of radical transparency. Essentially, it means they want you to have the best fashion, in the most ethical way possible, and in order to do so, they're willing to tell you all the little details from where it was to made to how much it cost to make.
Now, the company is taking another step in a radical direction with the launch of a new fall outerwear collection, ReNew, made from 3 million recycled water bottles. According to GQ, "specifically: a puffer jacket that uses 16 recycled bottles, a fleece sweatshirt that renews 35 plastic bottles, a zip fleece that uses 41 and two parkas, long and short, that are composed of 60 and 55 plastic bottles respectively," are to be released starting today.
The motivation? The 8 billions tons of plastic creating a home within our oceans, as well that Everlane founder and CEO Michael Preysman believe the global supply chain is negatively affecting our planet and it's time for a change.
He's not wrong. The impact the fashion industry has on the environment is mind-bottling. Did you know textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture? What about the fact that it takes 2,700 liters of water to make a single cotton shirt? That's just the impact on clean water. What about the carbon footprint involved with production, or the fact that polyester garments when washed shed microfibers that can add to the increasing levels of plastic in our oceans?
It took the company close to two years to develop the material needed to keep the fashion line's quality high while adding new sustainable practices.
Outside of developing new material, Everlane is also getting rid of their virgin plastic poly bags that their products are shipped in, for a new recycled version in 2019. By 2021, the company has pledged to stop using new plastics. That includes eliminating all single-use plastic from their offices and stores like food packaging.
"Our goal is to reduce our impact on the environment, renew where we can and ultimately get customers to think the same way," he says. "It's our responsibility to dedicate time and resources to developing new materials and products that are more sustainable, so customers have a choice and can make better decisions."