Would you have imagined these products made from recycled plastic bottles?

Have you ever counted how many plastic bottles of water or soda are on sale in the supermarket? And how many of them are for single use?

Every minute 1 million plastic bottles are sold in the world. Most end up in landfills or in the sea

Mar de plástico – EL DIARIO.ES

Only a few countries have a high recovery rate of PET plastic, such as Japan or Switzerland with a recovery rate of 79% and 83% respectively. Although in the European Union the percentage is increasing (an average of 47% of the bottles are recycled), surely you wonder what you can do from home.

Making objects from discarded material is the key.

Changing the way we think about plastic is the key to a more sustainable world. However, we must also find systems that aim to recover this material, which is so often so bluntly despised. Why not go back to making objects?

Would you have imagined trainers made from recycled plastic bottles? or sportswear? Check out four products made from recycled material and plastic bottles here. Perfect examples of a circular economy!

Sustainable sport gear:

Team Timbuktu is an Australian business that elaborates sustainable sport gear as leggings, jackets and many other items. These products are made from recycled plastic bottles! You would never imagine it! By using fabrics that are made from recycled plastic bottles to create their collections, they are not only saving plastics from oceans and landfill, but also using less energy and water compared to creating conventional synthetic fabrics.

Sustainable trainers

The brand Allbirds elaborates shoes made from sustainable wool, recycled plastic bottles and cardboard. The standard sneaker emits 12.5 kg CO2, but their average shoe emits 7.6 kg CO2. Check them out!

Eco friendly toys

Green Toys is an american brand which turns plastic into toys. In this way, the milk jugs that your own children use and that end up in the bin can now be turned into toys. Did you know that every pound of recycled milk jugs used to create a Green Toys product saves enough energy to power 3.000 AAA batteries, a TV for 3 weeks or a laptop computer for 1 month. While recycled milk jugs are their primary material, they also integrate other types of plastics such as yoghurt cups.

 

4. Outdoor clothes: Recover Brands was founded by Bill Johnson and John Riddle, two outdoor sports fanatics who seek to preserve the environment by selling all kinds of clothing for men, women, children and outdoor gear, reusing recycled materials, such as plastic bottles. In 2010, Bill and John founded Recover as a mission-driven sustainable apparel company that would not only reduce plastic pollution in rivers, oceans, landfills, and adventure playgrounds, but would also give people an easy choice to be part of a solution instead of part of a problem. 

Reusing plastic bottles IS NOT HEALTHY

The unique use of PET bottles would not be a problem if we reused the same bottle during a large number of cycles. But the experts ask us not to do so due to the migration of substances from the bottle to the water. PET plastic is resistant, but tends to degrade in the presence of salts, ultraviolet light and time, so that the use of a bottle filled with tap water can damage its interior, which releases substances into the water we drink. There have been studies that confirm that the repeated use of these bottles, makes the water become as NOT POTABLE. It is paradoxical and quite sad that today there may be spikes of harmful bacteria precisely in our refrigerators. And the problem is that washing them with soap and water, or even in the dishwasher, deteriorates the bottle a lot.

 

The 4 small actions to stop using plastic bottles

• Know the WATER QUALITY IN YOUR HOME: Find out about the quality of the water in your tap and find out about the conditions of health, cleanliness and quality suitable for your consumption.

• Use A FILTER TO IMPROVE THE WATER: Although the conditions are right, you may not like the taste so much. There are numerous filters on the market that you can buy to your water service system.

• AT HOME, USE GLASS: Store water in the fridge in glass bottles, a durable material that retains all the properties of water.

• IF YOU HAVE TO GO OUT, USE METAL CONTAINERS OR SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS: Acquire a bottle made of other material that is not plastic. You can find something with the capacity that suits your lifestyle.