Polyester is one of the most popular fabrics in the world. Made from PET plastic, it is prized for its durability, lightness, and low cost of production. While these characteristics make it ideal for various uses across the textile industry, the oversupply of polyester has also fueled an environmental disaster. Now, brands like Adidas, Nike, and Shein are trying to increase the amount of polyester made from recycled plastics — but is this the best use of old plastic? We visited Tamil Nadu, India, to see how one company makes clothing from used plastic bottles and whether this is the best solution for this waste stream.
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00:00These filaments used to be plastic bottles and they're being turned into polyester.
00:07The fabric makes up more than half of all of our clothing.
00:12And one company in India called Sri Renga can turn about one and a half million plastic bottles into polyester in a single day.
00:22That is going to be almost more than tripled in the next couple of years.
00:27Turns out there's plenty of appetite for it.
00:30More and more, fashion brands like Adidas, Nike, and Shein are trying to increase the amount of polyester made from recycled plastics in their lines,
00:40often marketing them as more sustainable.
00:43But why is so much of what we wear made from plastic to begin with?
00:47And how do you turn a bottle into clothing?
00:52The Sri Renga company spins about 25 metric tons of polyester on a daily basis.
00:57The founder, K. Sankar, is proud of every filament his factory spins, but it took him decades of trying to get here.
01:05I felt like doing something for society by doing recycling.
01:10Today, he runs the business alongside his son, Senthil, who quit his job in IT to help his dad.
01:16I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to be an entrepreneur in India.
01:22Globally, we produce about 600 million of these bottles every year.
01:26And most of them are not recycled.
01:29In India, waste pickers collect and deposit them at sorting sites like this one, where workers crush and bail them for sale.
01:40Every month, Sri Renga buys about 900 metric tons of trash from companies like this one.
01:47But all it really wants is PET.
01:50That's short for polyethylene terephthalate, one of the most common types of plastic.
01:58At Sri Renga's factory, the first step to getting it is separating the valuable bottles from the caps, labels, and glue.
02:09Mixing in other plastics could ruin the final material.
02:12But getting to pure PET is pretty time-consuming.
02:18We have a lot of advanced sensing technologies, which are used to separate PET, PVC, all the other plastics.
02:27Bottle caps are usually made from polypropylene, a kind of plastic that Sri Renga doesn't recycle.
02:32So they sell them to another company that makes lead-acid battery cases.
02:37And all of the dirt and sand they collect from washing the bottles is pressed with ash to make bricks that decorate the factory floor.
02:48Then, machines crush the bottles into flakes.
02:55The bagged flakes are then loaded onto trucks and delivered to another part of the factory.
03:08Here, they are crushed again and passed over a sieve shaker,
03:12a machine that sorts the flakes by size, making sure they're no larger than 14 millimeters.
03:18Smaller particles falling to the shaker's bottom are used again to make PET pellets.
03:24But the flakes still aren't 100% separated.
03:27After a quick rinse, machines transfer them into a float tank.
03:33Here, the PET will sink, and other plastics can be skimmed off the top.
03:38They are then washed 10 times to remove any remaining dirt and glue.
03:43Nothing is wasted in this factory. That water is again used back.
03:47The plastic is rinsed one final time, leaving behind clear flakes, which are dried and loaded into these sacks.
03:55Now, it's time to turn them into fiber.
03:58And PET is uniquely suited for this purpose.
04:02It has long chains of molecules that hold tightly together, creating lightweight, flexible, and strong materials.
04:10The length of those molecular chains determines whether the plastic is used for things like bottles, packaging, or textiles.
04:19Chemically, PET and polyester are the same thing.
04:24Making fibers starts by melting the plastic flakes with colored pigments, a technique known as dope dyeing.
04:33The combined goop is then pushed through a spinneret, a metal plate with hundreds of small holes that can be adjusted for thickness.
04:41When it melts and comes out, it comes in the colored form.
04:44We don't use a single drop of water. We don't use energy for our coloring process.
04:50Sri Ranga currently makes 200 different colors of fiber.
04:54As they exit, the filaments cool and dry.
05:03After every use, the plates are cleaned using high-frequency sound waves,
05:08which create microscopic bubbles that collapse and remove anything stuck to the spinneret.
05:15The fibers are then stretched using a series of rollers, which deposit them into these large buckets.
05:21Shutting down and restarting these machines is energy-intensive and expensive,
05:26so they have to run nonstop throughout the day.
05:29If you have to stop, then it takes a long time for us to reboot again.
05:33Workers weigh the drums and bring them into this area called the drawline.
05:39Here, 60 to 70 barrels are simultaneously routed through a series of eyelets,
05:46pulling them into parallel strips.
05:56Polyester tends to hold static electricity,
05:59so the fibers are dipped in a starch-based lubricant to avoid sticking together.
06:04Another series of rollers makes them up to four times longer.
06:08And yet another set of heated rollers stabilizes the fiber into its stretched state.
06:14This machine crimps the fibers, giving them a wavy pattern
06:18and making them easier to combine with other textiles, like cotton.
06:24The finished fibers travel to the top of this platform, where they are cut down to a manageable size.
06:30Finally, they are compressed, baled, and shipped to another company for further processing.
06:40At Sri Kanathal Mills, the fibers are spun into yarns using a series of machines.
06:49First, workers load them into a bale opener,
06:53which uses rollers and spiked drums to loosen the fiber.
06:57They weigh the sheet before loading it into a carting machine.
07:01It pulls the fiber over wire-covered cylinders that comb through tangles,
07:06creating a thin web that is then condensed into a loose rope called sliver.
07:11These sliver strands are coiled into large cans.
07:15Workers attach them to machines that combine several of the ropes together.
07:21Next, the slivers are run through something called a simplex machine.
07:26It uses a series of rollers rotating at different speeds to stretch the fibers and make them more parallel.
07:32The result is a more compact and uniform rope known as roving, which is ideal for spinning.
07:38Workers feed the roving through a spinner that twists it into yarn.
07:43Finally, the strands are ring-spun onto bobbins.
07:53Cynthia and her husband are working on a new project.
07:57They are working on a machine that can be used to spin yarns.
08:01They are working on a machine that can be used to spin yarns.
08:06Cynthia and his father use these cones to make their clothing.
08:10But before PET was ever woven into t-shirts, it started out as a lab experiment.
08:16When scientists at the chemical company DuPont developed the first synthetic fibers in the early 20th century,
08:22they were celebrated as major scientific achievements that could replace silk and cotton.
08:27Modern fabrics of today are all chemistry and a yard wide.
08:32Before the breakthrough, the U.S. imported over 90% of its silk from Japan,
08:37using it mostly to make stockings.
08:40But all trades ceased during World War II, collapsing the silk market.
08:44After the war, nylon stockings became a cheap, popular substitute.
08:49Free nylons just for the scramble.
08:52And in the 1950s, polyester was billed as a magical, man-made fabric that wouldn't wrinkle.
08:58For a new concept in fashion. Clothes that pack well and need little care.
09:04In the 1970s, it became cheaper than cotton, and fashion brands embraced it.
09:09The material was strong, flexible, easy to dye, resistant to heat and stains, and quick to dry.
09:16In the 1980s, cotton was the world's most popular fiber.
09:20But over the next few decades, polyester came to dominate the industry,
09:24and is expected to keep growing, with the majority of production outsourced to Southeast Asia.
09:29The popularity was fueled by fast fashion brands like Gap, H&M, Zara, and Forever 21.
09:36In 2020, the world produced enough polyester to fill about 2.5 million garbage trucks.
09:42Less than 15% of that came from recycled material.
09:47And one study showed that a single truckload's worth of clothing goes into a landfill or incinerator every second.
09:55To bring that stat down, more and more brands are working with recycled polyester made from plastic bottles,
10:01including Adidas, Nike, Zara, and even Shein.
10:05In early 2024, more than 120 clothing companies pledged to increase their use of recycled polyester.
10:11Sri Ranga launched its own recycled clothing brand in 2021 called Ecoline.
10:17Most pieces are made of 100% recycled polyester.
10:21But sometimes they're mixed with cotton.
10:24So once the fiber was made, making yarns and fabrics and garments was just an extension.
10:29Everything is still made in the same facilities.
10:32Workers connect hundreds of bobbins to a machine that weaves the yarn into sheets of fabric,
10:37which then head to inspection.
10:43If there is some defect that is found, it will be marked with a marker.
10:47And once that marker is seen in the cutting section, they will cut that portion alone and keep it aside as waste.
10:53That again gets recycled.
10:55All of the fabrics they use are laid out, marked, and cut into various shapes for garments.
11:02To add a design, Sri Ranga uses a sublimation printer.
11:07And once the sheets are out, we place them into panels in our heat transfer machine.
11:14This device applies heat and pressure to transfer dyes directly onto the polyester.
11:21The company sells 400,000 garments a year and plans to triple production by 2026.
11:27We are boldly betting on this, expanding our capacities, thinking that the future is going to be sustainable fashion.
11:34And we want to be well-placed when that wave comes.
11:38In 2023, the family received a huge boost after India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, wore one of their vests, known as a sadri.
11:46I was literally in tears.
11:48My product is worn by the Prime Minister of the country. Something wonderful.
11:53It's something to convince someone to wear something out of trash.
11:57And that we've been able to do with E.coli.
12:00Clothes made from recycled polyester are often advertised as good for the environment.
12:04But they still come with an impact.
12:07Washing any synthetic fiber can introduce microplastics, less than 5 millimeters in length, into our waterways.
12:14Some studies suggest that synthetic fibers contribute more than a third of all microplastics in the ocean.
12:19And if it ends up in a landfill, river, or ocean, it won't break down.
12:23To top it off, recycling polyester isn't as easy as recycling a plastic bottle.
12:29Polyester is often mixed with things like cotton, spandex, chemicals, and dyes that must be separated before recycling.
12:36The cheapest and simplest method for recycling clothing involves shredding it.
12:40But that creates shorter fibers that need to be blended with the virgin ones to make new clothes.
12:46So they are typically downcycled into carpets and stuffing for insulation.
12:52In 2020, a research institute in Hong Kong started experimenting with fiber-to-fiber recycling.
12:59It partnered with H&M to make this machine, which turns used clothes into new ones in about three days.
13:06First, a technician like Emily Hsiao examines the garment.
13:09So today we will recycle an old garment.
13:12This ozone chamber sanitizes the fabric in about an hour.
13:17Then, Emily removes the buttons, labels, and zippers, and cuts the garment so the fabric is easy to work with.
13:26The shredder strips the bits of cloth down further.
13:31And then I will take off the open fabrics.
13:35But this part of the process does require some new materials.
13:38So we will add some virgin fibers into the yarns to make it stronger.
13:44Another machine mixes that cotton with a recycled skirt.
13:51Emily then rolls the mixed fibers into clumps
13:55and feeds them into a machine that turns them into what's called a fiber web.
14:01The fiber web gets bundled into these snake-like slivers.
14:06The slivers are then spun into ply yarn, the building blocks for any new garment.
14:13Finally, a machine knits a new sweater based on a computer design.
14:19Shoppers pay about $65 to recycle clothing here.
14:22How do we help consumers think about their clothes differently?
14:25Well, that's one of the reasons why we have a glass box doing research in a shopping mall.
14:30The H&M Foundation partnered with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel.
14:36That investment allowed the company to license and install the technology at one of its stores in Stockholm
14:41without the need for the government to pay for it.
14:45That investment allowed the company to license and install the technology
14:49at one of its stores in Stockholm, where the company is headquartered.
14:53H&M calls it the loop.
14:55Here, shoppers pay only $18 to see the recycling process in action.
15:00That's about the price of a new pair of the brand's sweatpants.
15:05That's how it comes out.
15:07And then this is the only part that has to be removed.
15:11Virginia, the technician, trims the extra yarn and the garment is ready to go.
15:18It seems like a perfect solution, but it takes three days to recycle just one garment.
15:24A factory like this that can recycle thousands of tons of clothes a day doesn't exist yet.
15:30But H&M says that eventually, this kind of technology could be a global solution for textile waste.
15:36The holy grail is garment-to-garment recycling.
15:38And that's for me where today most of our investment is going to.
15:45And other large companies are making similar bets.
15:48Gap and Zara's parent company, Inditex, recently made major investments in an American business called Ambercycle.
15:56The company developed a chemical process to separate polyester from dyes and other fabrics,
16:01eliminating the need for virgin materials.
16:04The idea for Ambercycle is really just how do you take an old t-shirt and turn it into a new t-shirt,
16:09instead of using natural resources.
16:11The most difficult thing is scaling up the process from pilot plant scale to tens of thousands of t-shirts.
16:18That successive scale-up is really hard.
16:22It's especially hard when virgin polyester is so much cheaper and easier to use than new recycling technology.
16:29Less than one percent of old clothes are recycled to new clothes.
16:33So we don't actually have large, or I would say commercial-scale technology for recycling.
16:40Meanwhile, fast fashion shows no signs of slowing down.
16:43And it's expected synthetic fibers could make up nearly three-fourths of all textile production by 2030.
16:50Brands and the industry wider needs to invest more into fiber-to-fiber recycling.
16:55But at the same time, we need to realize that this is not a silver bullet, you know.
17:00Recycled polyester generates about 70 percent less emissions than virgin.
17:05And Sri Ranga has several certifications ensuring it limits the use of harmful chemicals
17:10and actually recycles the trash it buys.
17:13From the end product, you can trace everything back to the origin.
17:17And we wanted that to be the core ethos of our brand, and we positioned it that way.
17:21Some advocates say it's better to just recycle bottles into new bottles, since that can be done around 11 times.
17:28But less than 10 percent of all plastic actually makes it to a recycling center.
17:33So for now, Senthil and his dad are happy to save any plastic they can from landfills or the oceans, even if it's only temporary.
17:42For us, when you make it into a garment, it takes a longer time for it to reach the dustbin.
17:46Though there's a lot of work to be done, he thinks Sri Ranga is well-positioned to make the most out of plastic trash.
17:52Whether it's recycling or renewable energy, this is the era of sustainability.
17:57And I think we're in the right space.
18:16www.senthil.co.in