For years, the fashion industry has self-administered a coat of greenwash by pushing the concept of recycled plastic. It’s time it stopped getting away with it.
Water bottles are supposedly transformed into activewear and fishing nets, we are told, are reborn as swimsuits. Brands market these materials as the sustainable answer consumers have been demanding. But beneath the green marketing and feel-good messaging the truth is that recycled plastic is not the environmental saviour it promised to be.
The industry leans heavily on recycled polyester and other plastic-based materials to sell a cleaner image. It is a convenient way to appear sustainable without fundamentally changing how fashion operates. But consumers are catching on. They’re asking harder questions and demanding real answers about what they’re putting on their bodies.
If a garment isn’t safe for the body, it isn’t sustainable for the planet. Every time we wash synthetic clothing, whether it’s virgin or recycled plastic, millions of microplastic fibres are shed into our water systems. These particles are too small to be filtered by wastewater treatment plants, so they flow into rivers, oceans and, eventually, our food chain. Microplastics can now be found in human blood, in placentas and in the most remote corners of the Earth. The clothes touching our skin are the same ones poisoning our ecosystems. Recycled plastic doesn’t solve this problem. It remakes it.
The recycling con allows brands to continue business as usual while appearing progressive. But the reality is that most synthetic garments can only be recycled a limited number of times before the fibres degrade beyond usability. And even when plastic bottles become fleece jackets, those jackets still shed microplastics. They still require energy-intensive processing. They still don’t biodegrade at the end of their life.
The promise was circularity – a closed loop where nothing goes to waste. The reality is a slightly longer linear path that still ends in landfill or incineration, with environmental damage at every step.
Consumers are tired of vague green promises and greenwashing tactics. They want transparency. They want materials that don’t compromise their health or the planet’s future. They’re learning that true sustainability can’t be achieved by simply recycling the same problematic materials we’ve always used.
The fashion industry needs to move beyond recycled plastics and embrace genuinely regenerative materials. These are natural fibres grown without harmful chemicals using business models that prioritise longevity over disposability. We need clothing that returns safely to the earth, not clothing that persists in our environment for centuries while leaching chemicals into our bodies.
Recycled plastic is a convenient half-measure, a way to look sustainable without being sustainable. But the conversation has moved on. We now understand that what we wear matters. Not just for style, but for our health and our planet’s survival. And that understanding demands more than recycled promises. It demands real change.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352186423002857
https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-link-between-plastic-use-and-climate-change-nitty-gritty
