Levi’s make jeans with recycled bottles

Skinny or straight cut, Levi’s is now making jeans out of recycled bottles. The American brand’s new collection of denim uses roughly eight plastic bottles or food trays per pair […]

Skinny or straight cut, Levi’s is now making jeans out of recycled bottles.

The American brand’s new collection of denim uses roughly eight plastic bottles or food trays per pair – or a minimum of 20% recycled content. In total the collection will re-use 3.5 million recycled bottles.

Both men and women will be able to buy Levi’s Waste<Less products as part of the brand’s Spring 2013 collection which launches worldwide.

James Curleigh, Global President of the Levi’s brand said: “From the beginning, we have designed our products with purpose and intent. By adding value to waste, we hope to change the way people think about recycling, ultimately incentivising them to do more of it. This collection proves that you don’t have to sacrifice quality, comfort or style to give an end a new beginning.”

Through the company’s partners, PET plastic, or polyethylene terephthalate materials – including brown beer bottles, green soda bottles, clear water bottles and black food trays – are collected through municipal recycling programs across the United States.

The bottles and food trays are sorted by colour, crushed into flakes and made into a polyester fibre. Next, the polyester fibre is blended with cotton fibre, which is finally woven with traditional cotton yarn by Cone Denim to create the denim used in the Levi’s Waste<Less jeans and trucker jackets.

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