Virgin plastics might sound innocent, but they’re far from it. These are brand-new, unrecycled materials made from fossil fuels that will stick around in our environment for centuries. Not exactly as pure as the name suggests, right?
Most of the activewear industry produces garments made from unrecycled plastic, contributing to over 40 million tons of plastic waste each year.
Can’t we just use cotton?
The activewear industry depends on nylon, elastane and polyester because they offer key benefits for workouts—stretch, compression, moisture-wicking, and durability. Without synthetic fibres, your favourite leggings wouldn’t hug in all the right places or move with you during a workout. Natural fibres alone don’t provide the same level of performance and often lead to activewear that doesn’t last as long and ends up in landfill sooner—so annihilating synthetics isn’t going to solve the whole problem.
If not virgin, what?
The good news is we don’t have to keep relying on virgin un-recycled plastics to get performance benefits. At Earthletica, we use recycled plastics in every single piece, maintaining the stretch, compression, and comfort you need, while reducing the amount of new plastic produced. The recycled plastic in our synthetics come from recycled bottles and fishing gear, meaning you get all the benefits of synthetics while minimising the downsides. We’re constantly evolving garment technology to make sure sustainability and high performance go hand-in-hand.
And it’s time to stop calling these materials 'virgin,' 'fresh,' or 'new'—terms that make them sound way too positive. Let’s call it what it really is:unrecycled plastic. Recycled should be the norm, not the exception.
