Between the US and the UK alone, over 500 million pairs of jeans are purchased every year. The sad fact is that most of them will end up in landfill. Wasted. Forgotten. Useless.
But there is another way.
Closing The Loop On Dirty Denim
22.03.19
4 min read
WHY IS THE DENIM INDUSTRY SO BAD?
When it comes to pollution from the fashion industry, denim is well known for being one of the worst offenders.
From growing the cotton, often not organic or sustainable, right through to the dyeing of the jeans using harmful chemicals, such as cadmium and mercury. The process of producing denim is resource heavy and creates a significant level of pollution, which all too often finds its way into our rivers and oceans.
The final nail in the coffin is that denim is notoriously difficult to recycle. The finished product is worn for a couple of years, and then thrown away. Left to rot in landfill sites, where the harmful chemicals used in dyeing can leach into the surrounding environment.
WHY RECYLED DENIM?
We want to do things differently.
That’s why we’re so passionate about introducing a recycled denim yarn to our range; a genuine environmental solution, knitted from waste materials.
The material used in our range comes from an Italian supplier who have created a process that recycles discarded denim jeans and turn them into a high quality yarn. The process works two-fold: it not only cuts down drastically on resources and pollution it also works to close the loop, taking a whole lot of old denim jeans out of landfill where it can cause lasting damage.
That’s what we call a win-win.
HOW IS RECYCLED DENIM YARN MADE?
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
This recycled yarn is produced by first shredding down old jeans recovered from landfill all over the world. The strips are then reduced down to fibres and re-spun to create the Denim yarn. This process cuts down massively on cotton production, reduces the water used throughout the process, and needs no harmful chemicals to dye the yarn as it retains its deep indigo colour naturally.
By finding a way to recycle the old jeans into usable cotton, this yarn closes the loop on the whole process and creates a manufacturing cycle that doesn’t end in mountains of waste. Not to mention being a great vegan wool alternative.
At Finisterre we’re committed to finding sustainable solutions and making products that are good for you and kind to the planet. We’re always on the lookout for new, innovative fabrics, so working a recycled denim yarn into our collection was a natural step for us to take.
You could say, it’s in our jeans.
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