Girlfriend Collective’s Activewear Is Made Out of Recycled Water Bottles

Seattle-based women’s fashion brand Girlfriend Collective is known for its ethically made activewear. 

Since the beginning, they have been dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint. How do they do this, you may be wondering? By creating activewear made of recycled plastic.

Their motto, “don’t make waste, wear it” has informed every part of their manufacturing process.  That is why all activewear sold by Girlfriend Collective is made out of recycled water bottles. Why did they decide on using recycled plastic bottles and how does one make clothing out of such a material?

Girlfriend Collection explains the process as follows, “Did you know almost all synthetic activewear is made from plastic? We just make ours with materials that would otherwise clog landfills and pollute the earth. It all starts with 100% post-consumer water bottles that have their labels removed, are crushed into billions of miniscule chips, and then washed until they’re sparkling clean. After a bunch of science stuff with names like ‘polymerization,’ you get a soft, recycled yarn that eliminates the need for petroleum and diverts water bottles from landfills at the same time.”

Further, if you’re wondering where all of these water bottles are coming from, Girlfriend Collective is open about sourcing them from Taiwan. Taiwan, which used to be referred to as “Garbage Island,” underwent a complete transformation and is now a world leader in recycling. Roughly 55 percent of waste is recycled there, as opposed to only 35 percent in the United States. Girlfriend Collective has its own processing centre in Taiwan, run by a Taiwanese family that has been in the recycling industry for decades. Bales of water bottles arrive at the processing centre, where they are first weighed and logged, before being steam washed and then sorted. 

As transparency is one of the pillars of Girlfriend Collective’s mission, they provide a detailed breakdown of what each item they sell is made of. For example, the brand’s Compressive leggings and bras are made out of 79% recycled polyester and 21% spandex (this equates to 25 post-consumer recycled water bottles per pair of leggings and 11 per bra).

Meanwhile, their Lite leggings are made from recycled fishing nets and other waste using ECONYL yarn. The breakdown ends up being 83% recycled nylon and 17% spandex. Finally, every t-shirt or tank top that Girlfriend Collective sells is 100 percent cupro. For those that don’t know, cupro is a fabric made from the waste the cotton industry leaves behind. The yarn is also made in a zero-waste, zero-emission facilitation in Japan, before being constructed in a certified factory in Vietnam. 

This brings us to our next point about Girlfriend Collective: Not only do they make their activewear out of eco-friendly materials, but they are dedicated to the socially responsible manufacturing of their clothing. 

All Girlfriend Collective products are cut and sewn in an SA8000 certified factory in Hanoi, Vietnam. SA8000 is a social accountability standard and certificate developed by Social Accountability International. It ensures that the factory adheres to very strict regulations, such as safety guidelines and fair compensation for workers. Receiving SA8000 certification is similar to Fair Trade certification, except the former is mainly used for factories, whereas the latter relates to farming. 

In addition, all Girlfriend Collective packaging is 100% recycled and recyclable, so whatever you do, don’t throw it in the trash!

Finally, Girlfriend Collective perfectly marries environmental sustainability with style. Their women’s activewear collection comprises three different styles of leggings (including a maternity legging), two unitards, longline sports bras, running shorts, bike shorts, skorts, and even scrunchies. All of their items come in an array of bright colours, ranging from moss green to plum purple, all of which were created using eco-friendly dyes.