Recycling You Can Wear

It’s true… and recycled cashmere sweater will lay a little more softly on your conscience…

I’m a recycler to a fault. Come by my desk at work, and you’re likely to find at least one shopping bag filled with grocery bags, bubble wrap, Styrofoam packaging lifted from co-workers’ personal packages… I can’t seem to live with the idea of throwing anything away that can technically find new life elsewhere. So it sits, bordering on hoarder-style, until I have enough refuse to warrant a trip to our local recycling center.

Same goes for my clothes. I would venture to say that about 75% of my wardrobe is second-hand. Save for the few special things I come across that deserve a splurge, thrift stores and eBay are my first picks.

That being said, it’s becoming pleasantly common to find a higher level of conscience in the clothing industry. Which is why, when I learned that FP was adding a recycled cashmere sweater — The Beside Me — to its mix, I was already a fan.

Recycled cashmere is not a new phenomenon, but neither is leaving out options for those who want to shop more mindfully. For those to whom it matters, Beside Me is comprised of 65% post-consumer recycled cashmere.

Why not 100% recycled? Good question. The process of sorting and shredding cashmere disrupts the integrity of the fiber, so mixing the reconstituted yarn with another material ensures that the sweater will stay intact and allows for better control over softness and color effect.

Recycled cashmere is also said to produce half of the carbon footprint as does producing virgin cashmere, so… There’s a LOT to like about this sweater. And we haven’t even gotten to how it feels (which is soft — very soft).

This might be one sweater that falls under both the splurge AND feel-good categories.

 

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I don’t even have a proper cashmere sweater, haha! But I love the initiative of this!

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

4 years ago

i usually go for woolen sweater form online shopping store but cashmere could be my next purchasing for sure ;)

3 years ago

Sounds interesting. Well, I am more of a cotton and leather person but I think it’s good to give recycled cashmere a try :)

Thanks for sharing this great idea .