Patagonia Launches Common Threads Recycling. Updated
by Warren McLaren, Sydney 
on 08.18.05
Patagonia, as we’ve previously noted continue to do groovy stuff in the textile industry. Like jeans from blended hemp/PET bottles, jackets from more of those recycled PET plastics and soon a line of footwear. Now the company announces they’ve finally found a way to act on something they’ve been wanting to implement for years. Making new clothes from old. vauDe in Germany pioneered this concept but Patagonia, in typical fashion, are taking it to the next level. (The vauDe Ecolog program was to take old polyester products and turn them into new trims.A form of recycling known as 'downcycling'.) Patagonia will, however, collect unwanted polyester Capilene underwear and process their fibres into genuine new garments. Thanks largely to the EcoCircle fibre-to-fibre recycling system developed by Teijin, of Japan. It’s figured that the resulting born-again fibre will save 76% the energy and 71% the CO2 emissions of using virgin polyester. Customers can start returning garments as of 12 September 05. Via ::Sports Textiles.
Update: Spying the above post, BackCountry.com advised us they were also covering the story and in their version they have a link to the Patagonia site, which has comprehensive FAQs and graphics on how it all works. Thanks Kendall.
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you've mentioned Patagonia before... and not just their awesome green products but how they donate 1% net or 10%pretaxes (whatever is higher) to eco orgs. but that is so just the tip of the iceberg! Patagonia's impressive green initiatives include internship programs (they pay their employees -any and all- to take a month off and volunteer for environmental groups). They also work with the hemp plastic people (recently mentionned in TH) making hemp frisbees (and i heard, working on buttons). They are constantly looking at ways to be greener, and making an impact in the financial community by sticking to their guns.
Yvon Chouinard is an american business hero (imnsho) he sets bells up around the "campus" (where they make the stuff) and the bells ring whenever the waves are good. Everyone is encouraged to grab their board and go surfing.. finish work later. people seem to love their jobs.
A rumour i heard a few years ago: Patagonia was selling a steady $500M worth of clothes.. and some people came in to meet him with powerpoints and power suits explaining how he can (with their help, natch) go from $500M to $2Bn in 3 years.. he (Chuoinard) not only threw them out, but aparently throwing things in their direction... he got into this because he loved nature and being outdoors, and maybe it's this passion as opposed to his wanting to amass a fortune that makes him have such integrity, but whatever, Patagonia ought to be the model towards which all green businesses strive...
I was at the press release Patagonia held at the recent Outdoor Retailers show in Salt Lake City and was happy to see the same genuine enthusiasm for the envoirnment and this new initiative that would resonate with Yvon so well is carried on through current Patagonia President Michael Crooke. (I wrote about this on my blog)
I had the chance to meet Yvon at a rare slideshow he narrated and presented. When I asked him about his early climbing movies and inquired about using them to raise money for a local climbing initiative he simply said, "Sure, they're at my house. Just give me a call."
Another cool enviro fact about Patagonia. Their warehouse in Reno produces one dumpster of garbage per year. I hope Patagonia makes because I know they are losing market share to the big outdoor corporations of North Face, Mountain Hardware, and Arcteryx. Arctyerx was a cool small company making all their products in British Columbia but now they are owned by Salomon and producing goods overseas.