Patagonia Inc., the Ventura, California outdoor gear and apparel manufacturer known for its support of environmental causes, is asking customers to return some worn-out cold-weather underwear products so the fiber can be renewed and made into new long underwear.
Underwear makeovers? Not quite.
Better just call it new life for old skivvies.
Patagonia Inc., the Ventura, California outdoor gear and apparel manufacturer known for its support of environmental causes, is asking customers to return some worn-out cold-weather underwear products so the fiber can be renewed and made into new long underwear.
In a just-announced partnership with Teijin, a big Japanese fabrics manufacturer, Patagonia will ask customers to return old Capilene baselayer products so the fiber can be broken down to the molecular level and remade into a new polyester product that can be turned into a virgin-quality fiber and then new clothing, the companies said this week.
Beginning Sept. 12, customers may return their old Capilene products to Patagonia by mail or at any of its stores to be sent to Japan aboard container ships that normally return there empty. They will be taken to Teijin's recycling plant to begin their transformation into new garments.
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Patagonia's Capilene baselayers are long-underwear products that Patagonia has produced and sold for more than 20 years, said Jen Rapp, the company's spokeswoman.
Designed for use in fairly cool to frigid weather, the undergarments are produced in several fabric weights with prices ranging from $29 for the Capilene "silk weight" undershirt to $68.50 for the "Expedition Weight fleece" sweatshirt-like product, Rapp said. Patagonia sells about 1.3 million Capilene baselayer shirts and pants annually through the company's catalog, Web site and 20 retail stores nationwide.
Calling the concept the Common Threads Recycling Program, the companies said research indicates the environmental impact of using worn-out garments to make new polyester fibers is significantly less than producing fiber from so-called virgin materials.
It results in an energy savings of 76 percent and a 71 percent reduction in so-called greenhouse gas emissions.
Teijin, which had $8.5 billion in sales last year, includes nearly 160 businesses. It established the world's first chemical recycling technologies for fibers, films and bottles.
Teijin will begin manufacturing all of Patagonia's Capilene baselayer products in the fall of 2006, Rapp said, using the recycled materials in 50 percent to 100 percent of each garment depending on weight.
The company's current supplier, which Rapp declined to identify, uses all new fibers to make the clothing.
The new technology will reduce the use of petroleum-based products to make fibers and keep large quantities of old clothing out of landfills, the company said.
"Our goal is to take responsibility for every product we make. This includes responsibility for the fibers a garment is made of as well as what happens to a product at the end of its useful life. Garment recycling is simply our first step toward a truly environmentally sound process," Michael Crooke, Patagonia's president and CEO, said in a release.
"We recognize that everything we make pollutes, and most of it eventually ends up in landfills. Moving forward, with our customers' help, the Capilene pieces we sell each year will potentially live on in perpetuity." Patagonia has used recycled plastic soft-drink bottles to make fleece for jackets and sleeping bags since 1993, and was the first company in the outdoor industry to use only organic cotton in its clothing lines, the company said.
With 2004 sales of $240 million, Patagonia has given $20 million in cash and in-kind donations to grassroots environmental-activist groups since 1985.
ON THE NET: http://www.patagonia.com
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
