Waste2wear is a recycled plastic-based textile company which aims to disrupt the traditional garment and textile industry, objectively reducing its carbon footprint and relieving the ocean of its plastic.

To tackle current environmentally inefficient manufacturing practices and discontent regarding industry standards, Monique Maissan, a textile engineer worked at learning and refining the production of yarn from recycled plastic. Her passion for this work and her penchant for textiles and creative design brought ‘Waste2wear’ to life.

The process involves collection (from ocean and land), shredding, melting and moulding of plastic bottles to generate yarn. This is termed as Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (R-PET), or simply, ‘recycled polyester’. R-PET is used with various other eco-friendly fibres (cotton, wool) to create garments as finished products. To push this out in the consumer market, they have partnered with multiple brands to manufacture and market sportswear, workwear, basics, high fashion, school uniforms, bags and other products.

Some notable initiatives include:

• Ocean Plastic Project: This project plans to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean through research and industrial collaboration. From identifying plastic-dense areas in the ocean to placing finished products on the shelves, this project caters to the entire process. Currently, a few Dutch retail outlets have joined forces. These include the likes of Promiss, Claudia Strater, Wehkamp, Steps, Oilily, Joolz and Expresso.
• Waste2weave: This aims to incorporate recycled plastic fabric with locally available natural fabrics to produce hand-made woven articles and garments. The project has also been a conduit for the empowerment of the Handloom industry in India, where a major chunk of workers are females.
• Work with Dr Jane Goodall Institute Netherlands: with an active focus on innovative green collaborations for the future.

The products being manufactured are environmentally safe, certified by third-party quality testing companies like Intertek and Scientific Certification Systems. Waste2wear products also meet OKEO-Tex® Standard 100, Global Recycling Standards and BSCI standards put in place to ensure a safe and holistic work environment.

The problem of microfibers being generated has been under the sun lately, but the company claims that recycled textiles generate substantially fewer microfibers than their traditional nylon and cotton counterparts. Furthermore, using R-PET has advantages like usage of less water, energy and reduced CO2 generation and emission.