Timberland’s New Line is Made from Trash Collected from the Streets of Haiti

Campaign: Timberland’s Commitment to Responsibly Made Products
The process to turn a bottle into fabric is fairly simple.

Originally posted on Fast Co.Exist

By Adele Peters

“A new backpack started life as 7.5 plastic bottles trashed on streets in Haiti. The backpack—part of a new line of boots, bags, and t-shirts made by Timberland—looks like it's made from canvas. But the material is 50% recycled plastic, sourced from a place that both has excess trash and a desperate need for jobs.”

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The plastic is mechanically broken down into flakes.
And then rolled and manipulated into bales that can be spun into fabric.
The polyester can also be blended into cotton, as in the case of the Timberland products.
Thread began working in Haiti in part because it’s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Thread spent two years studying the recycling systems and setting up a program that would fill in the gaps, rather than competing with local business.
When a bottle is recycled into fabric, the end result looks the same as if it had come from fossil fuels.
The Thread team now wants to repeat the process in other countries.

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