It’s the most widely-used clothing fibre in the world, but as a synthetic material made from plastic, polyester needs a lot of energy to produce and is highly water and air polluting, according to the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
The fashion industry is trying to tackle the issue, but there’s no simple solution, according to the CEO of one of the world’s largest clothes manufacturers. “There isn’t so far (a) raw material that is as cheap and as versatile as polyester today,” said Roger Lee, who runs Hong Kong-headquartered TAL Apparel.
As well as being inexpensive, polyester doesn’t crease and can be washed at low temperatures. However, the laundry process also releases tiny fibres known as microplastics, which can be harmful to marine life. While polyester lasts for years, longevity is a double-edged sword — clothes can be worn many times but will likely end up in landfills, and don’t biodegrade.
“Today, we rarely use virgin polyester,” Lee told CNBC’s “Managing Asia: Sustainable Future.” “What do I mean by that? Quite often, our polyacetal (fibre) that we use are actually from recycled bottles.”
Over the past two years, Lee said there has been a huge acceleration in the use of recycled plastics in fashion. “The reason is that the cost of using that has come down to the same price as using virgin polyester. And that’s the key — if the price is the same … (it’s) a no-brainer. It saves environments (and has) the same commercial costs.”
TAL Apparel manufactures clothing for brands including Burberry, J Crew and Patagonia and was founded by the Lee family who started the fashion business with a cotton cloth shop in 1856. The firm was revived by Lee’s great uncle C.C. in 1947.
At the moment, only about 14% of the polyester is produced from recycled fibres, according to standards body Textile Exchange. How close to a breakthrough is the sector in terms of recycling used garments?
“If you talk about pure polyester, yes, we are close. But the problem is a lot of materials are mixed materials, it’s a polyester blend with something else. And separating that has been an issue,” Lee explained.
TAL is involved with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel which is investigating new ways to make the fashion industry more sustainable. In November, the institute launched a “Green Machine,” developed with the H&M Foundation, which can separate mixed materials. The new machine works by decomposing the cotton part of the material and extracting the polyester, which can then be spun into garments.
Preventing clothes from going to landfills, or encouraging people to buy less, could go some way to addressing an excess of polyester garments — and that means looking at the fundamentals of the fashion industry.
