Mountain Equipment Co-op has recycle bins at its stores for worn-out polyester clothing, which it turns into new clothing and then sells again. They accept clothes from their own brand, Polartec, EcoCircle and Patagonia Common Threads. This seems like a great program, because it not only reduces waste but also provides material for new polyester, thus lessening the demand for a petroleum byproduct.

All items in the garment recycling bin are sorted; we donate products that still show signs of life. The remaining products are sent to Teijin, a fabric manufacturer in Japan, where they are reprocessed into new fibres through Teijin’s Eco Circle™ closed-loop recycling system. In this process, garments are crushed, turned into granules, then run through a chemical reaction process that removes dyes and other chemicals before turning it back into raw polyester (polyester polymer), then new Eco Circle fibre.

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