Is Recycled Polyester Actually Better Than Virgin?
Almost every sustainable legging is made from bottles. The carbon savings are real, the closed loop isn’t, and the microfiber evidence points both ways.
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What Does bluesign Approved Actually Mean?
It’s the certification serious outdoor brands actually bother with, and it works from the opposite end to every other one. It also says nothing about what your jacket is made of.
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Indigo Dye and Aniline: What Makes Denim Blue, and What It Costs
Almost no denim is dyed with the indigo plant any more. The synthetic version carries a chemical called aniline, and roughly 400 tons of aniline waste leaves the industry every year.
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Why Stretch Jeans Can’t Be Recycled
The 2% of elastane that makes your jeans comfortable is the reason they can’t become new jeans. A tiny amount of plastic, spun through every thread, turns a recyclable fabric into a blend.
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The Faded Jeans That Killed People
Sandblasting gave denim that worn-in look by firing silica at it, and gave the workers doing it an incurable lung disease. Turkey banned it in 2009. It didn’t stop everywhere.
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The Best Sustainable Denim and Jeans Brands Worth Buying
A single pair of jeans can take 2,000 gallons of water to make. Here are the sustainable denim brands doing it with less water, cleaner dye, and fair labor, vetted on materials and ownership.
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How Much Water Does a Pair of Jeans Actually Take?
You’ve seen the 2,000-gallon figure. Levi’s own lifecycle study puts it closer to 1,000. Both are real numbers measuring different things, and the gap tells you where denim’s water actually goes.
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The Best Sustainable Swimwear Brands for Guilt-Free Summers
Almost all swimwear starts as virgin plastic and sheds microplastics every time you wash it. Here are the sustainable swimwear brands making suits from recycled fibers, built to last.
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PFAS in Swimwear: What “Quick-Dry” Is Often Doing
Testing of 72 clothing items found PFAS in 64% of them, swimsuits included. The most common one detected was a chemical that has been banned globally for years.
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Econyl and Recycled Nylon: What It Fixes and What It Doesn’t
Regenerated nylon cuts the climate impact of the fiber by up to 80% and is chemically identical to virgin nylon. It’s still nylon, though, which means it still sheds plastic into the water every time you swim.
