100% Eco-Friendly Yarn By Recover
The primary yarn for the fabric used Afterglow’s hoodies, joggers and shorts is comprised exclusively from textile waste and old clothing, which is deposited at collection bins worldwide, and upcycled by Spanish textile firm Recover, into an incredibly durable yarn. This yarn is then woven into Afterglow’s innovative, sustainable Diagonal Fleece Fabric, which comprises more than 90% of these garments and is therefore their most important component.
Afterglow’s sustainable yarn is spun into high quality fabric by our textile firm, who reuse up to 100% of the chemicals used in their fabric production process.
Afterglow is also currently experimenting with new blends of organic and recycled cotton for future clothing ranges, in order to achieve the best balance of the soft jersey hand-feel of organic cotton, with the maximum sustainability of recycled cotton.
The Recover Yarn Production System
Afterglow’s 100% upcycled cotton yarns are manufactured using the Recover Upcycled Textile System. For more than 70 years Recover has been producing the world’s leading sustainable yarns, which are now the lowest impact yarns in the global market. Recover yarns outperform even organic cotton yarns across all sustainability measurements. For example, one organic cotton t-shirt requires 837 litres of water to be produced, while a Recover t-shirt uses no water at all.
01 > Old garments and textile waste are deposited at collection bins (we recover truly sustainable raw materials – textile waste and used clothing – from all over the planet)
02 > Upcycle waste is processed via cutting, shredding and spinning to create Recover cotton fibre using zero water, chemical products or dyes
03 > Recover cotton is combined with other low impact dyed fibres (recycled PET, organic cotton, recycled nylon or hemp)
04 > Recover yarns are knit or woven Into new textiles for virtually every product application imaginable
05 > Apparel and other products are cut and sewn from textiles made with Recover yarns
06 > Products made with Recover are purchased used, and eventually worn-out, at which point they are returned to the Recover Upcycled Textile System.
Recover mostly utilise cutting scraps to produce all of their generic yarns, including R-Blue – which form 15% of textile waste in the cutting and sewing stage – as well as previously used clothing, with no need whatsoever for virgin cotton, reducing their eco-impact considerably. Recover R-Blue yarn contains 52% upcycled fabric and 48% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (RPET) bottles.
But there is even more to it than that. Recover’s unique Colorblend process, employed to create their distinct range of colours, uses no dyes to match colours, almost zero water, emits no greenhouse gases, and is pesticide and insecticide free.
Recover R-Blue Yarn Eco Savings per kilogram
50% of the energy used to recycle and spin Recover yarns is generated by solar power and the company, which is free of hazardous substances, has scored highly in several sustainability ratings, including the Higgs MSI Index, which measures overall environmental impact and ranks Recover as the world’s leading producer of sustainable yarn.
As you can see from Recover‘s Yarn Production System, the company is a great example of the circular economy and Afterglow is proud to have them as our primary supplier of yarns.
By purchasing an Afterglow hoodie made with Recover R-Blue yarn, you will save at least 12 PET 500ml plastic bottles from going into a landfill or from polluting the land or oceans.
Recover’s Overall Eco-Saving Impacts
In 2018 Recover fabrics saved the global environment :
In the future, Afterglow will be using both R-Blue and R-Earth, another innovative Recover yarn comprising Recover upcycled cotton, plus organic cotton and hemp.
Read more about Recover yarns on the Recovertex website here.
Eco-Friendly Thread - AE Gutermann
The sewing thread, used to stitch together all Afterglow’s fabrics and garment seams, is made from 100% recycled MARA RPET polyester, sourced exclusively from recycled PET plastic bottles by producer AE Gutermann.
Apart from producing 100% recycled thread, AE Gutermann are committed to being as sustainable as possible. Several of their production facilities worldwide have already stopped producing landfill waste and they are close to achieving the same in their other facilities.
AE Gutermann strives to minimise transportation emissions, and avoid the use of any unnecessary plastic packaging. They are also fastidious about saving water – several of their global facilities filter their waste water to produce drinking water, and they have saved more than 48% of their global water consumption, per kilogram of thread, in the last 14 years.
In addition, AE Gutermann’s plant that produces Afterglow’s thread in Gutach im Breisgau, Germany, runs completely on hydroelectric power, and the company has reduced its global power consumption by 7% since 2006.
AE Gutermann is a certified member of several reputable international environmental initiatives, including those monitoring low pollution output in the textile industry, less toxic packaging, the reduction and elimination of hazardous chemicals and efficient energy management. AE Gutermann also received certification on the Higgs MSI Index in 2016.
