Recycled Yarn

Eco-friendly Sierra Club socks are made with RECOVER cotton blend yarns, which are made from 100% recycled fibers. We searched the world over for the finest source of recycled yarns, and found it when we discovered a Spanish company named Hilaturas Ferre-which has a satellite facility Hickory, N.C., just a short hop from Parker Legwear.

Here's the how and why of recycled yarn.

HOW:

It all begins with high-end clothes! During the clothing manufacturing process, patterns are cut out; the area of fabric that falls outside of the pattern lines, called "the clip," is usually sent to a landfill or incinerated. Instead of letting that happen, we gather the clip for reuse.

1. Sort
   The clip is gathered; these top quality, ring-spun cotton fabric scraps are then separated by color.
2. Cotton Breakdown
   The scraps are sent through a garnetting machine and turned into a puffy fiber called cotton shoddy.
3. Poly Breakdown
   In a new process, post-consumer PET beverage containers are turned into a 100% recycled polyester fiber called poly shoddy. A smidgen of this material provides the "skeleton" needed to keep the socks sock-shaped.
4. Blend
   In a blow room, the two materials are mixed together in a precise ratio, formulated to net the ideal blend for the yarn that's being created.
5. Re-spin
   The blended fibers are spun into yarns in different compositions and counts. After the laydown process, the yarns come out on spools, ready to be used.
6. Knit
   This 100% recycled yarn is used to make Sierra Club socks… and the planet smiles.

WHY:

In keeping with the Sierra Club mission of protecting the planet, we use recycled and organic fibers because we believe it's the right thing to do. And we're not alone:

• 74% of consumers believe that they can actively help to combat climate change
• 79 % of consumers would buy from companies that are doing everything they can to reduce their impact on the environment
• 89% of consumers are planning to buy more ecologic products in the next 12 months

http://www.havasmedia.com/#/en/ourenvironment/climatechangepressroom

The Advantages of Recycled Yarn

By producing one ton of recycled cotton yarn instead of conventional cotton yarn, we can achieve the following advantages:

1. Saves 4,817.6 liters of water.
2. Saves 16.5 kg of chemical products.
3. Avoids the emission of 233.8 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere.
4. Avoids the dumping of 3,574.4 liters of contaminated wastewater.
5. Saves 512.5 kW/h of energy.
6. Recycles textile garments or clips that would otherwise be treated as waste.
7. Saves a 1990.1-m2 surface area of cotton-growing land per ton of yarn. This land can then be used to grow other crops.

Source: Study carried out by AITEX in October 2007 "COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF RECYCLED COTTON YARN VS. CONVENTIONAL COTTON YARN"