Model is 6ft 4 / 193cm with a 40 inch / 100cm chest, and wears size XL.
- Warm outer fleece made from recycled wool
- Zippers made from plastic bottles
- Cord locks made from plant waste
Every single second, a garbage truck’s worth of clothing is dumped into landfill somewhere on Earth. So if we want to avoid trashing our planet, we have to start figuring out how to re-use the stuff we already have.
That’s why our Garbage range started with a very simple idea. What if garbage isn’t garbage? What if it’s simply pre-assembled raw materials that we can use to make new things.
To build our Garbage Fleece we intercept stuff on its way to landfill and turn it into something new. The result is a soft, technical, double layered fleece constructed with a warm outer layer made from old wool sweaters, a soft inner lining from waste fabric, zippers built from plastic bottles, and cord locks made from plant waste produced during the harvest. It’s our first step towards building complex technical clothing with every detail sourced from waste streams.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
LANDFILL CAN BECOME A SOURCE OF RAW MATERIALS
Around 100 billion new pieces of clothing are made each year. And by 2050 that number is likely to double. At the same time over 150 tons of clothing are dumped in landfill every minute. So if we want to change that we need to start figuring out how to make new clothes from the stuff we already have. While lots of the materials we work with start life in a cutting-edge lab or out in nature, the Garbage Fleece comes from different piles of trash.
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AN OUTER FLEECE BUILT FROM OLD WOOL SWEATERS
The soft fleecy outer layer is made with old wool sweaters. The process of turning old things into new things starts with giant bales of wool clothes that are intercepted before they get to landfill. They are then sorted into similar colours – which is how we get our blue and orange - before being mechanically shredded, pulled and spun into new fibre. These new fibres are then combined with polyester and Nylon to create a strong, stable and warm fleece.
WE USE FABRIC SCRAPS TO MAKE THE LINING
On the inside of the fleece you'll find a smooth inner lining that lets you wear the fleece just like a jacket as the weather turns cold. The lining is made entirely from recycled Nylon which we get from fabric scraps produced during the manufacturing processes of other brands' clothes. You'll find a small, zipped chest pocket built into the lining of the fleece.
ZIPPERS BUILT FROM PLASTIC BOTTLES
The fleece fastens down the middle with an oversized zipper that's protected by a storm flap and metal snap fasteners. Either side of the zipper you'll find two zipped pockets also protected by storm flaps. All three zippers are made from waste materials. The teeth and sliders are recycled Nylon made from fabric scraps, and the zipper tape is recycled polyester which we get from old plastic bottles
WE REPLACE PLASTIC WITH PLANT WASTE
You'll find elasticated cord adjusters at the back of the hood and at the hem so you can tighten the fleece up in harsh weather. The cord locks look and feel like regular plastic but are made with 50% plant waste from grain harvests. Grains like rice grow inside a woody shell, called a husk or a hull, which is often thrown away after harvesting. Rather than let them go to waste we keep the husks and use them to make the cord locks, halving the amount of plastic normally used.
THE GARBAGE FLEECE IS A FIRST STEP
Making clothes out of garbage is hard. Because global supply chains are set up to make new things. Not new things out of old things. And the more complex a piece of clothing is, the more difficult it is to make it entirely out of waste streams. Our ultimate aim is to build highly technical clothing like the Garbage Fleece with every single feature and detail sourced from waste streams. But while we’re close, we’re not quite there yet. Lots of the materials we use are things we’ve intercepted on its way to landfill. But the elasticated cords, metal snap buttons and cuffs are made from new materials in this first edition.
