Sustainable development is one of the most concerned topics in the world right now, thus sustainable swimwear has become one of the most popular and searched fashion terms in the swimwear industry for the coming years.
Just like everything else, swimwear should make us feel comfortable and confident—and it doesn't hurt if it is sustainable, too. After all, swimsuits are often made out of materials like polyester, spandex, and nylon that are non-biodegradable and shed microfibers composed of really tiny pieces of plastic with every wash. Sadly, these microfibers end up in our oceans, harming marine life and disrupting the entire ecosystem. Therefore, the development of sustainable swimwear is an important step to improve the global environment.
Sustainable swimwear, unlike traditional swimwear, is made from recycled fibers by people paid fair wages in safe conditions. Recycled fibers normally have recycled nylon and recycled polyester. Recycled nylon is usually made from pre-consumer fabric waste, although it also may come from post-consumer materials such as industrial fishing nets.
Like traditional polyester, recycled polyester is a man-made fabric produced from synthetic fibers, and it is makes use of existing plastic, those existing plastics are from old water bottles. The process to make recycled polyester fabric is quite simple as below:
Step 1: Collect plastic bottles;
Step 2: Chop into fake;
Step 3: Turn into pellets;
Step 4: Blend flake and pellets to make polyester fiber;
Step 5: Blend with transitional cotton;
Step 6: Spin into yarn;
Step 7: Knit into fabric;
Compared the cost, recycled nylon is more expensive than recycled polyester as the raw material of fishing nets is not plentiful as water bottles. The MOQ for recycled nylon is also higher than recycled polyester. But with huge requirement from the market, a lot of research is currently being conducted to improve the quality and reduce the costs of the recycling nylon process.
More and more fashion brands are paying attention to sustainable swimwear, as a professional swimwear manufacturer, we are also committed to it. We keep sourcing recycled materials such as fabric, trims and packing materials, trying to use to our products. Our garment factory has GRS certificate and we require our supply chain who supply recycled materials need to have GRS certificate as well. GRS is Global Recycled Standard, is an international, voluntary, full product standard that sets out requirements for third-party certification of recycled content, chain of custody, social and environmental practices and chemical restrictions. The GRS is intended for use with any product that contains at least 20% recycled materials. From the very beginning of raw material to the end at the last seller in the final business-to-business transaction, each stage of production is required to be certified.
With the growing scarcity of natural resources, both climate change and the raw material shortage, new challenges are continuing threat to the entire fashion industry and even the whole society. For us, we need to take actions, the adjustment, coordination, to enable the healthy development of our society, and then our business can be sustained. Believe in the near future, recycled materials will be the normal materials using across our life.
