Making clothes out of recycled cotton may sound like a new idea, but Recover has been doing it for 75 years. Based in southeastern Spain, the textile company is a leading expert in turning old clothes and industrial waste into new garments. In this episode, Orsolya Janossy, Recover’s Senior Sustainability Manager, breaks down Recover’s process, the importance of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and why clothes made from recycled materials just makes sense.
Orsolya Janossy: It’s impossible to just recycle one t-shirt, so we have to mix it with others, right? So, we would put it into the pile and cut it into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces of the textile waste are processed inside something called a shredding machine. Here, we have created an optimized formula where the fabric pieces are shredded into long fibers at the lowest environmental cost.
Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff: So what does that fiber look like? When it’s initially shredded, what does it look like?
OJ: Like fluffy…maybe you would say, like these cotton things that you can eat in an attraction park. I would say something like that.
RLS: Like cotton candy or cotton fluff?
OJ: Yes!
RLS: Blue cotton candy. I’m imagining my T-shirt is now blue cotton candy.
OJ: Great
This episode features a conversation with Orsolya Janossy, senior sustainability manager at Recover. Exactly how Recover is able to turn trash into treasure and why more cotton should be recycled is what we’re talking about today.
Listen below or click here to listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Produced by Cascale and Hueman Group Media.
Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of Cascale or Hueman Group Media.
Andrew Xeni, founder & chairman of Nobody’s Child, joins us for season 1, episode 10 of our Source of Good podcast.
Jean Hegedus, Director Of Sustainability at The LYCRA Company, joins us for season 1, episode 9 of our Source of Good podcast.
Lisa Ly, Senior Sustainability Manager at Dunelm, one of the UK’s largest home furnishings retailers, joins us for season 1, episode 8 of our Source of Good podcast.
