{"id":529,"date":"2012-08-17T21:26:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T21:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.creative-catalyst.com\/expect\/?p=529"},"modified":"2019-02-11T20:49:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T20:49:21","slug":"the-plastic-we-wear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creative-catalyst.com\/expect\/the-plastic-we-wear\/","title":{"rendered":"the plastic we wear …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well into the twentieth century, clothes were pricey and precious enough that they were mended and cared for and reimagined countless times, and most people had a few outfts that they wore until they wore them out. How things have changed. We\u2019ve gone from making good use of the clothes we own to buying things we\u2019ll never or barely wear. We are caught in a cycle of consumption and waste that is unsettling at best and I think unsatisfying at its core.<\/em>
Elizabeth Cline, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Bottle
Dress made from plastic bottles in the costume exhibition at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I need to buy new yoga pants; there’s a lot out there, but I’m\npretty fussy – about what it looks like, how it feels, what it’s made\nfrom. I’d like to buy fair trade, organic, all-natural fibre,\nnon-toxic dyes and without formaldehyde and plasticisers added to\nmake the clothes stay fresh and wrinkle-free on the shop rack. But in\nthis age of supposed consumer choice, it’s not as easy as one might\nthink …
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\nMost yoga pants are made of a combination of\ncotton and elastane (aka spandex, lycra, etc); elastane<\/a>\nis important as it enables the fabric to stretch without losing its\nshape – but what exactly is it? After a bit of online research, I\nlearned that elastane is a “polyurethane-polyurea copolymer”,\nfirst synthesised in 1937 but not used until the 1950s; it’s one of a\nnumber of synthetic fibres which are made from raw materials such as\npetroleum-based chemicals or petrochemicals, and its properties\ninclude abrasion resistance, washability, and resistance to\nperspiration and oils, making it an appealing fibre for sportswear.\nSince I really don’t want to buy or wear clothes made from\npetrochemicals, I went on a mission for elastane-free yoga pants; but\nafter an extensive search, the only ones I could find that were\nreally free of elastane or other synthetic fibres were the very\nloose, baggy style – which I don’t like and which are not so\npractical for yoga.
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\nWhat about yoga pants made from\nrecycled plastic bottles – surely that’s a good thing,\nenvironmentally at least? (What effect the plastic might have on our\nskin is a whole other question). In one shop I saw garments with\nlarge lables boasting about how many PET bottles they have kept out\nof landfills and oceans. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia have been\nusing this kind of material for years, and now most of the major\nbrands of sports clothing have jumped on the band wagon. Being ahead\nof the wagon, Patagonia are already touting the “reduce, repair,\nreuse, recycle” mantra and offering repair services and tips on\nhow to care for your garments so that they last longer, but most\nother companies are still at the “buy this and feel better about\ndiscarding your plastic bottles!” stage.
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\nOn the\nsurface, it looks like a win-win situation – keep the plastic out of\nthe environment and get high-performing cheap clothes. However, every\ntime these recycled plastic clothes are washed, around\n2000 tiny plastic microfibres are released into the washing water<\/a> and\nend up … in the ocean, mostly; nicely pre-broken-down to a size\nthat can directly enter the food chain. So rather than keeping\nplastic out of the environment, it’s effectively removing some of the\ndegradation steps and speeding up the increase of microplastics (less\nthan 5mm long) in oceans and landfills. If you need more convincing\nscience, here are some links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n