Disposable baby products are full of non-recyclable plastic. Reusable options have always been a more sustainable choice. We’re now making them with recycled materials (rPET) that would have otherwise polluted the earth.
So what exactly is rPET?
rPET is the short name used for recycled polyethylene tetraphyte (PET). Without getting too technical, PET is the plastic you’ll commonly find in plastic bottles, packaging and clothing (called polyester).
PET comes from non-renewable virgin crude oil and is popular due to its low cost, durability and versatility. But the downside of this material is that it takes 700 years to break down. And while PET can be recycled, a huge volume of it still ends up in landfills or oceans every day.
rPET is one solution to help the plastic pollution problem. It uses what has already been created and repurposes it into other things, like our range of accessories! rPET also uses up to 50% less energy than making PET from scratch, so has a lower carbon footprint.
Here’s how we transform plastic bottles into beautiful EcoNaps products
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Sort
Bottles are sorted and selected into bales at recycling centres.
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Clean
Bottles are washed until sparkly clean, and any non-PET components are removed.
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Shred
Bottles are shredded into tiny flakes that are recleaned and processed into chips.
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Melt
Chips are melted, cooled, smoothed and stretched onto reels to make soft yarns.
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Yarn
The yarn is then ready to be woven into high performance fabric for EcoNaps products.
Using rPET in our products is one way we can help the plastic pollution problem. It’s not perfect (we’d rather a world without plastic), but we’re proud that we can help reduce our product’s environmental impact and help our customers make more mindful choices for a better future.
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