Comment by jjice
5 hours ago
Why? Polyester (as one plastic based fiber) gets a lot of flack because low quality clothes tend to use it, but polyester can be a fantastic fabric if done right. Durable, fast drying, and can be completely recycled.
For example, Patagonia tends to have high quality polyesters and has since the 70s. My experience with their fleece is that I can abuse it and it'll come out unaffected on the other end. Pilling now and then that I take down with a pill remover.
Nylon is also a fantastic material, when used appropriately, like for the shell of a jacket.
And don't get me wrong, cotton, wool, and hemp are all fantastic as well. Most of my clothing is those fabrics and they do a damn fine job at what they're good at.
Polyester is great for performance clothing where you need lots of moisture, but it retains stench really poorly compared to other materials.
When I travel, I love my merino + nylon shirts because I can wear them for days without washing and they fairly durable.
One problem with polyester is the amount of microplastics which enter the water supply when washing them. It's an unacceptable amount.
Polyester is biodegradable, albeit slowly.
Unfortunately too slowly for salmon and other pollution sensitive species.
Everything is biodegradable, given enough time.
Citation needed.
2 replies →
I used to have Patagonia clothing and even washing them rather gently would leave a quite a bunch of plastic in the washing machine.
I just don't like plastics and try to avoid them as much as possible.
I'd rather not be breathing in what it sheds.