Plastic is useful because it’s very durable. It takes an exceptionally long time to rot away. The upshot of that is worrying: almost every piece of plastic ever made is still with us on the planet today. That’s a lot of landfill, and the UK is running out of space. In 2018 alone, we exported 611 thousand tonnes of waste – mostly to poor countries, where there is little control on what happens to it next.
Clearly, it’s important to recycle as much as possible. But just putting things out for recycling doesn’t mean they will get recycled sadly. This is for a variety of reasons, but principally because it’s contaminated – adulterated with something that can’t be recycled (for instance, leaving the plastic film on a plastic container). This has led to the gloomy statistic that only about 9% of recycling is actually recycled worldwide. Overall, lots of the plastic we use is still virgin plastic directly from fresh, crude oil and is used just once before ending up in landfill, either here or in a poorer country with less control on its disposal.
Plastic is also useful because it can be easily made into so many things. It’s present in much of our clothing for instance. In fact, synthetic fibre now contributes 51% of all clothing fibre production. That’s about twice as much as cotton.
Some have suggested a new economic model. Instead of making things essentially to be discarded after use, the process could be different. Products could be created with ongoing, multiple reuse in mind with processes to facilitate this – I guess a bit like the way the milkman would bring and take glass bottles with every milk delivery.
Yogafurie in Bristol is very proud to be part of the new, circular economy and to be genuinely recycling materials. We stock both of the two leading brands of high-performance, ethical and eco-friendly Yoga gear. Read on to find out more about why we chose these brands out of the many available.
Our beautiful Yoga Democracy leggings are made from items such as water bottles, discarded carpets, and fishing nets. These are sustainably-sourced. Any offcuts are repurposed. The closed-loop manufacturing process is zero-waste and sweat shop free – there is no exploitation of the Earth or of people. And to top it all off, the fabric offers UVB sun protection, is sweat wicking and anti-microbial, and fade free.
We also stock Free Spirit clothing. What’s great about them? Well, the majority of Yoga and clothing on the market is made from polyethylene (PET). This is the type of polyester used to make plastic bottles. Its production requires huge quantities of water, lots of toxic chemicals and use of fossil fuels. Free Spirit us only recycled polyester, diverting lots of
plastic away from landfill (and the ocean). For instance, 32 bottles would be used to make one pair of leggings. But there are lots of other savings for the planet, too: 86% less water than regular polyester, and 70% less energy than regular polyester (CO2 emissions of are 75% lower).
People tell us that practicing Yogafurie Yoga and Hot Yoga in Bristol helps them to feel good about themselves. Feel good about the planet around you as well: shop with your Earth mother in mind with Yogafurie clothing.
Interested to learn more about this topic?
The impact of wet wipes – literally reshaping the rivers of the world. Tune in to this recent BBC podcast to hear what’s going on https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00013qz
