Waitrose launch Plan Plastic - The Million Pound Challenge

“Plastics” is today a hot topic.  Or should I say a major concern.  Hailed as a valuable invention of the 20^th Century that served so well in our daily lives , plastics however has become today an environmental problem - especially those made for single use only.  

David Attenborough’s Blue Planet TV series woke up the world  to the plastics problem directly affecting and polluting our oceans.  Since then we have seen on our screens and online metres of footage of vast islands of plastic waste floating in our open seas that have shocked us to this rude awakening that all fish are now contaminated with  some degree of micro plastics, according to environmental experts.   

SEAQUAL ™ converts plastic waste to filament yarns.
Photo © Lucia Carpio.

It is somewhat comforting to learn that a growing number of retailers are announcing their plans to do something about it, from sustainable sourcing to working towards plastics-free packaging and various efforts to reduce plastic pollution.

UK supermarket chain Waitrose & Partners have just launched a scheme called Plan Plastic - The Million Pound Challenge to award grants of between £150,000 and £300,000 to a ange of organisations using money raised from 5p carrier bags.

Tor Harris, Partner and head of corporate social responsibility, health and agriculture for the supermarket, said: “We hope the fund will help new and effective ways of accelerating action to rethink how we all use and dispose of plastic now and in the future.”

Applications could be from projects encouraging and enabling recycling, campaigns raising awareness and changing behaviour, or initiatives inspiring new ways of shopping and consuming.  Schemes focusing on fining alternatives and increating reuse of plastics in the food, agriculture and farming industries are also welcomed, along with those aimed at preventing micro-plastic pollution.

Trewin Restorick, founder and chief executive of environmental charity Hubbub, which is working with the retailer on the fund, said: "We'll look out for entries that show a tangible impact and have a longer-term legacy beyond the grant funding stage."

Applications will be accepted at planplasticfund.com until 24 February and the chosen grantees will be announced in May.

So if you are taking action to reduce plastic pollution, your project could benefit from the £1 million fund launched this week by Waitrose.

From bottles to boardshorts – 100 million used bottles recycled through QUIKSILVER X REPREVE® programme

Quiksilver, the emblematic boardsports brand of Boardriders, Inc., founded by a group of surfing enthusiasts in Australia in 1969, has announced that its recycling programme — in collaboration with REPREVE® branded recycled performance fibres — has hit above the 100 million-bottle mark (and counting).

Since its start in 2012, about 3500 tons of plastic has been repurposed into boardshorts, jackets and other garments. Recycled polyester both gives a second life to used plastic and reduces the global  footprint of a product significantly. Arguably the most environmentally impactful step of a production cycle is the creation of the raw material.

Producing recycled polyester consumes significantly lower amounts of energy (45%) and water (20%) than virgin polyester. Overall, the recycled fabric produces a third less greenhouse gases than conventional polyester one.

The 100 million bottles recycled through the Quiksilver x REPREVE® program save close to 9 million litres of drinking water and provide the annual energy consumption of close to 1000 households. Each Quiksilver x REPREVE® boardshort contains about 10 recylced bottles.

Made from fossil fuels, plastic is a raw material that we encounter everyday. Only 10% of all plastic produced worldwide is currently recycled — the rest ends up in a landfill or worse, the ocean. Today, large amounts of plastic floating in the ocean are threatening both marine life and the global climate.

“We are very excited to contribute a part to the protection of something we genuinely care about — the ocean. As surfers and snowboarders we need to think about the future, so our grandchildren can enjoy the mountain and the wave we love so much.  Up-cycling plastic waste into something that is useful for us, even today, is an important step”, says Garry Wall, Global General Manager of Quiksilver.

Quiksilver and fellow Boardriders Inc. brands Roxy and DC shoes have been using REPREVE® yarn as an essential part of their product offering for more than 5 years.

REPREVE® starts the process by turning used plastic bottles into plastic flake, which is then converted into REPREVE® chips. The chips are then melted, extruded and converted into yarn that carries the same performance qualities as conventional polyester. On average, a Quiksilver boardshort using REPREVE® yarn contains about 11 recycled bottles. Currently about 50% of the range consists of REPREVE® products. Over the next few years, the brand is committed to using 100% REPREVE® yarn in all boardshorts. The snow collection will follow suit, increasing the adoption of both REPREVE® yarn and other sustainable materials.

“Recycling is one thing, reducing another,” says Wall of Quiksilver. “100 million bottles are a milestone, now we are working on a refined strategy to fight plastic waste through innovative products and actions. There are still many areas where we need to improve and we look forward to bringing green values into all areas of our business, a responsibility that our industry as a whole needs to assume.”

Quiksilver's identity is represented by its logo: a mountain inside a wave symbolizing its attachment to boardsports and its environments, the sea and the slopes. Its products cover the entire range of sportswear, accessories and boardsports gear and it is also intimately associated with the very best athletes and the biggest events in the history of boardsports.

As for REPREVE®, Made by Unifi, Inc., it is regarded as a global leader in branded recycled performance fibers, transforming more than 10 billion plastic bottles into recycled fibre for new clothing, shoes, home goods and other consumer products. The earth-friendly fibre is found in products from many of the world’s leading brands including New Era, Levi’s, Target and Ford. R

Images from Quiksilver.

Fashion and Sportswear brands take urgent action to utilise recycled material waste

SEAQUAL ™ changes plastic waste to filament yarns.
Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

There is no time to wait and see with the critical problem we are facing on this planet after many years of not realising the damage that plastics, despite their amazing range of usefulness, have contributed to polluting our environment, our oceans, our cities, our countryside, and affecting the health of all living beings, ourselves, our nature and our wildlife.

The BBC nature programme Blue Planet II had driven the message hard and highlighted the immense urgency we are facing in one of their critically-acclaimed programmes hosted by nature guru and UK national treasure David Attenborough.

One shocking fact we have learned is that less than 50% of the 480 billion plastic bottles sold in 2016 were collected for recycling. It is indeed a responsibility of all of us to take action and tackle this irreversible global crisis.

Sundried sportswear made from
recycled plastics.

While politicians, activists and environmental agencies are reportedly taking action plans to promote recycling and minimising waste, many companies and brands are giving new lease of life to recycled plastic bottles by turning the waste into new ethical and environmental friendly products.

One such company is activewear brand Sundried whose sportswear range is made from 100% recycled materials including plastic bottles.

While helping to clean up the global excess of plastic bottles which would otherwise take thousands or even millions of years to decompose naturally Sundried are also reducing harmful emissions and water waste used to create new textiles.

Sundried was founded by personal trainer and triathlete Daniel Puddick. His goal was to create a brand that his children would be proud to be associated with in years to come.

Puddick says: "Being a parent makes you think about the bigger picture for the world, so business for me now is more than just creating a financially successful brand."

From the ten-piece pilot collection launched in 2016, Puddick has grown Sundried in size and together with his small team of designers have created sportswear made from recycled materials whilst ensuring a low carbon footprint.

Sundried activewear made from recycled materials
including coffee waste.

Sundried founder Puddick adds: "Creating collections made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled coffee waste has been a really exciting part of this journey and we are continuing to research the best, ethically-sourced materials available."

Fashioned from Nature exhibition - Victoria and Albert Museum, London until January 27 2019.
Photo © by Lucia Carpio 2018.

Of course Sundried is just one of many brands and designers who are all too aware of the plastic crisis and material waste.  Designs by the likes of Nike, Calvin Klein and Stella McCartney are on show among fashion specimens highlighting the close relationship between fashion and the environment at the Fashioned from Nature exhibition currently on at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.  Forming an important of the exhibition is the forcus on practices in the fashion industry that threaten people, the lives and the environment.  Running until January 27 2019, this is billed as the first UK exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and nature over the last few centuries, from 1600 to the present day.

Recognising that urgent action is required quickly to tackle marine plastics pollution, a Spanish company of textile fibres has recently unveiled its commitments to initiate a new eco-friendly yarns called SEAQUAL ™ filament yarn made out of plastic waste retrieved from the ocean.

Seaqual 4U was founded in 2016 to tackle marine pollution with as a starting point the recovery of plastic waste collected in the oceans and recycling them into a range of continuous and discontinuous yarns.

Its ingenious plan is to dredge then upcycle plastics from the bottom of the sea and turn them into fibres and yarns.  The company partners with some 400 fishing boats off Spanish coasts that help it to collect the plastic waste.

The company has thus set up a virtuous chain involving various stakeholders in the textile industry including spinners, weavers and brands. 

SEAQUAL ™  fibres is a real catalyst engaging the entire textile industry and thus inspire consumers to buy products made of sustainable fabrics made from recycled plastics.

New innovations from SEAQUAL ™ will include exclusive yarns in staple fibres for blending with other fibres such as recycled cotton, Tencel ® , viscose, wool, linen and will be available as both continuous and discontinuous versions in their natural ecru shade or dyed into different colours. 

Concept sports shoe from Adidas with a 3D-printed midsole created from ocean waste

We can never have too many shoes, some of us may say, but the world today has too much discarded plastic and much of it is found as waste in our oceans causing harm to wildlife and the environment.

Now German sportswear group Adidas has unveiled a new concept shoe that includes a 3D-printed midsole made from reclaimed ocean waste as part of a collaboration with sustainable group Parley for the Oceans.  This was announced to coincide with last week’s COP21 climate change summit in Paris. 

 

“The industry cannot afford to wait for directions any longer.  The 3D-printed Ocean Plastic shoe midsole is intended to demonstrate how the industry can re-thing design and contribute to stop ocean plastic pollution,” according to Eric Liedtke, an executive board member responsible for Global Brands at the Adidas group.

The concept shoe consists of an upper made with ocean plastic content and a midsole which is 3D printed using recycled polyester and gill net content.  The 3D-printed midsole, which cushions the foot and is covered underneath by a thin sole, is made using plastic melted down from old fishing nets. It builds on the brand's Futurecraft technology, which allows the midsoles to be tailored to the exact contours of the owner's feet.

As founding member, Adidas support Parley for the Oceans and its endeavours to end plastic pollution of the oceans.

Earlier this year Adidas showed off a trainer that had an upper made from trash found floating in the oceans.  Its upper was woven using fibres produced from the recycled waste – a technique that is repeated in this latest design.

Adidas has also announced that it will phase out the use of plastic bags from all of its own retail stores. This phase out has already started and will finish by the end of Q1 2016. The company has also stopped using plastic bottles at its HQ in Germany.