Clear, transparent bottles are collected as post-consumer waste.
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Providing PET solutions for sustainable apparel
Did you know… Freudenberg makes more than 250 different apparel interlinings & waddings with recycled fibers, using enough fibers to save 45 million bottles from waste every year?
Sustainable technical textiles from Freudenberg are driving the pace of progress. Freudenberg Performance Materials Apparel division is a pioneer in the development sustainable interlinings and waddings for the garment industry. Starting more than 12 years ago, our apparel materials experts have made it a priority to replace the use of virgin polyester fibers in apparel interlining products with fibers recycled from post-consumer waste plastic bottles.
250 products, 228 million bottles
We now manufacture and sell more than 250 different products for the garment industry using recycled polyester as a raw material at our interlining and thermal insulation manufacturing sites in Germany, China, Taiwan, South Africa, and Korea. Shifting to the use of recycled polyester fibers has saved the equivalent of at least 228 million bottles over the past 5 years alone from going to waste. The range of our materials is extensive – but above all, their quality makes the crucial difference.
Making Textile Materials from rPET
Bottles are washed, crushed, and bundled for shipping.
Bottles are cut into small flakes, which are melted and transformed into pellets.
Soft, fine fibers are created from the rPET pellets.
Fibers are carded and used to form base materials for nonwoven interlinings or waddings
Comfortemp Fiberball Padding, one of 250 different products for apparel made from rPET fibers by Freudenberg
Reduced Footprint
Using recycled fibers has a dual benefit; they create a new use for what would otherwise be single-use disposed plastic bottles, and the manufacturing of recycled fibers has a lower environmental footprint as compared to virgin polyester fibers. Research shows that producing fibers from recycled post-consumer waste requires 75% less water, 47% less energy, and generates 55% fewer emissions than fibers made from the original petroleum-based raw material.