Recycled Wool
We use recycled wool to extend the life span of a valuable fiber that has already been produced.
Why
Wool is a natural fiber that insulates, breathes and lasts for a long time. Producing wool, however, is a resource-intensive job. It requires vast amounts of land for grazing sheep, water to clean the fiber, chemicals to treat it and dyes to color the finished product. We use recycled wool to extend the lifespan of fiber that has already been produced. This allows us to make clothing with the same great qualities as virgin wool at a fraction of the environmental cost.
We’re making progress
The percentage of CO₂e emission reduction when using recycled wool instead of virgin wool
Where We Are
Recycled wool has been used in European textiles for hundreds of years. We get our recycled wool from pre-consumer sources, such as factory scraps, and postconsumer ones, such as returned garments. Once we collect it, we sort it by color and mechanically shred the fibers so they can be re-spun into new yarn. Most of our recycled wool is blended with recycled polyester to increase the length of the fibers we use to create the yarn. Our use of recycled wool has increased over the years, but we’re still limited in the diversity of products we offer due to the limited yarn size and blend.
This Spring 2020 season, 19% of our wool fabrics are made with recycled wool. Using recycled wool fiber this season led to 81% reduction in CO2e emissions compared to virgin wool.
What’s Next
Recycled wool is becoming a vital part of our fleece category, and we’re developing ways to use it more in other products as well. Our goal is to expand the diversity of products using recycled wool.
