COMMON THREADS: Patagonia launches Garment Recycling program

You know you’ve got some. Festering in a ball on the closet floor or in the back of a drawer next to the “Jingle Bells” gag boxers your mom got you last Christmas—emitting an unsettling aroma you helped create. Used Capilene base layers are what we’re talking about. Long coveted by skiers and outdoor enthusiasts alike for its ability to wick moisture and retain warmth, Capilene long underwear eventually wears out. But the story needn’t end with your smelly, threadbare underwear in the trash.

Patagonia wants back the Capilene garments you bought from them, although they’d prefer for you to wash them first. Beginning September 12, Patagonia will launch the Common Threads Garment Recycling program aimed specifically at their products containing 95% or higher content of polyester Capilene. So instead of throwing your unusable underwear away, you have the option to mail it in to Patagonia’s service center in Reno, mail it to a Patagonia retail or factory outlet, or drop it off at a retail or factory outlet.

Patagonia will take over from there and send the garments on a container ship bound for Japan. In Japan, your underwear will be processed back into raw Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), the same material used to make Capilene and the just as good as virgin PET. Since virgin PET is made with a chemical requiring the direct use of petroleum and natural gas, the notable benefit is the significant reduction in the use of natural resources, and thus carbon dioxide emissions, to produce Capilene using recycled garments.

While the idea of recycling Capilene sounds commendable, you may be wondering if shipping your old underwear halfway around the globe is really an environmentally viable practice. Fear not, the impact-conscious souls at Patagonia conducted a lengthy scientific analysis based on the very same query. They factored in carbon dioxide emissions involved in moving the garment from the customer’s closet, to the Patagonia Service Center in Reno, to Matsuyama, Japan, where the Capilene is made and recycled in Tejin Fibers Limited’s factory.

Producing PET using recycled material shipped from the U.S. resulted in 76 percent less energy consumption and 71 percent less carbon dioxide emissions versus producing virgin PET. For comparison, using recycled material collected locally in Japan improved impact reduction only slightly with 83 percent less energy consumption and 77 percent less emissions. Surprisingly, the largest factor in the difference between local recyling in Japan and shipping garments from the U.S. was the leg of the journey between the consumer and Patagonia. With this in mind, Patagonia prefers consumers to send their old Patagonia garments via mail when possible, as opposed to hopping in the car to make a special trip to a Patagonia store.

If you would like to participate in Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling program, you can send your washed, worn out Patagonia-branded Capilene to:

Patagonia Service Center
Attn: Common Threads Recycling Program
8550 White Fir Streeet
Reno, NV
89523-8939

Or visit Patagonia.com to find a retail location and read about their other environmental preservation programs. Patagonia will release a line of Capilene products utilizing recycled garments in the fall of 2006.