We notice that there are still many different ideas about the meaning of circular workwear. In this blog we want to tell you our explanation of what we mean by circular clothing.
The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. For example, 1 cotton T-shirt contains about 4000 liters of water, there is already 200 million kilos of textile waste per year in the Netherlands alone and only 3% is recycled worldwide.
Circular workwear changes this, but what exactly do we mean by circular clothing? At Schijvens Corporate Fashion and therefore also at our workwear brand T’riffic, we make our clothing from recycled materials. This means that we can make new workwear from our customers’ old workwear in combination with recycled PET. A circular item is an item made entirely from recycled materials. This means that NO new raw materials are used for it. The use of new raw materials still has a big impact. What makes the article circular? That is that you can reuse the same materials in this circle. When you only use recycled materials and therefore NO new raw materials, you create a closed circle. I will explain this circle step-by-step below so that the circular process can be better understood:
The circular process:
- The old work clothing is collected from the customer and shredded.
- Old PET bottles are ground into PET flakes. These are heated and melted down into granulate.
- There are two types of fibers: The shredded workwear is pulled apart in a machine to produce textile fibers. As soon as you heat granulate, you can pull wires out of it, these become PET fibers.
- The two types of fibers are combined in a blowroom and from this mixture you can make wick.
- Recycled yarn can be spun from the wick.
- New recycled cloth can be woven or knitted from the new yarn.
As soon as the new circular clothing needs to be replaced again, the clothing can be returned and the circular process starts all over again. So you have a closed circle with recycled materials that can be used again and again.
How often can you recycle circular clothing?
You can recycle clothes made of 50% recycled cotton and 50% recycled PET polyester 3 to 4 times. After this, the cotton has disappeared and only polyester remains. Polyester can be recycled indefinitely.
Our circular clothing
We have 2 types of recycled yarn that we use for our clothing;
- Yarn consisting of 50% recycled cotton and 50% recycled polyester. Our T-shirts, polo shirts, sweaters, vests, shirts and work trousers are made from this yarn
- Yarn made of 100% recycled polyester, which we use to make our jackets and softshells
Your old corporate clothing as a raw material for new clothing saves about 99% water consumption, 40% energy consumption and 40% CO2 emissions. If you also take into account all return logistics operations, you have a definitive saving of:
Return logistics
We recycle old corporate clothing to make new clothing. The old corporate clothing is collected and sorted at Schijvens Corporate Fashion in Hilvarenbeek. After sorting on color and quality, the clothing is sent to Turkey, where it is shredded and fiberized. These textile fibers are mixed with recycled polyester fibers to make the yarn strong enough again. New yarn is spun from this which we use to knit and weave cloth. From this cloth we make new corporate clothing.
Have a look at our portfolio page to see the circular collections of our customers.
