Environment

New Levi's jeans will be 20 percent plastic bottle

New Levi's jeans will be 20 percent plastic bottle
Levi's will incorporate 3.5 million bottles into its Wasteless line of denim apparel
Levi's will incorporate 3.5 million bottles into its Wasteless line of denim apparel
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The new Levi's Waste
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The new Levi's Waste
Levi's will incorporate 3.5 million bottles into its Wasteless line of denim apparel
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Levi's will incorporate 3.5 million bottles into its Wasteless line of denim apparel

American clothing maker and denim specialist Levi Strauss & Co. has announced a new collection of denim apparel, including jeans, that will be comprised of a minimum 20 percent of plastics recycled from drinks bottles and food trays.

Levi's says that it is working with partners in the recycling sector to recover polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics, brown, green and clear drinks bottles as well as black plastic food trays. Having been sorted according to color, these are crushed (or, er, pelletized) into flakes and then drawn into polyester fiber which can be blended with cotton fiber before being woven with cotton yarn.

Because the color of the plastic is retained through the recycling process, the denim apparel takes on a hue (which Levi's describes it as a "beautiful undertone") – presumably according to the color of plastic chosen for the particular garment, rather than a muddy mixture of the lot.

The new Levi's Waste
The new Levi's Waste

Levi's says that an average of eight bottles (sized 12–20 oz.) will go into each pair of jeans. Given Levi's claim that the collection will make use of 3.5 million bottles, that mean the collection should include roughly half a million garments.

The company has announced that the collection, known as Waste<Less, will be available January 2013. The range is to be shipped worldwide, so those living outside the US (Levi's has confirmed to us the range will be made in North Carolina) and drawn to the sustainable credentials may wish to factor in air miles…

Source: Levi's, via Treehugger

6 comments
6 comments
Pikeman
This is not so much news as marketing.
Einstein
Any news about recycling pet bottles is good news.
Marilyn Harris
I wonder if after every washing of the jeans, is there leaching of plastic molecules into the water system?
Marilyn
Jerry Peavy
Now if they would just produce their jeans in America instead of China!
Kwazai
need to bring back the Tuffskins jeans fabric- wear em for a decade or better and they still look new. cuffed super-bells.....
Richard Handel
My misses wants to know if they're water proof?