How do you make a recycled polyester cap?

From the plastic bottle to a recycled cap or hat: how does it work?

It's hard to imagine the transformation of a plastic bottle that you carefully threw in the yellow bin (because you are a good person), into a magnificent TAIYO cap or hat. So we'll explain the process to you.

What is rPET or recycled polyester?

Basically, polyester or PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) is a derivative of plastic which is the most used in the world. It is mainly used as a material for the manufacture of bottles or other plastic packaging, but also in the textile industry for your polyester clothing.

rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) is therefore 100% obtained following the recycling of all these products.

What is the manufacturing process?

1. The first essential step comes from you.

It is because you have taken care to recycle your plastic packaging by throwing it in these famous yellow bins that the manufacture of recycled polyester is possible.

2. The products are therefore collected and sorted before being crushed and reduced into small flakes.

3. Once washed, these flakes are melted to obtain a paste.

4. The material obtained is transformed into fiber by a process which stretches the pulp to form a recycled polyester yarn.

5. New recycled polyester fabrics are thus created for the manufacture of our caps or bonnets.

It takes approximately the equivalent of 1.5 plastic bottles to make one of our docker hats and 2.5 bottles for our cuffed hats .

Is it really an eco-responsible material?

Recycling PET makes it possible to offer at least one recycling cycle to “post-consumer” products such as plastic bottles which are non-biodegradable. Without recycling this plastic, these bottles would be landfilled or incinerated, which is far from being the best solution for the environment.

This also makes it possible to reduce the quantity of new polyester produced and thus the oil extracted for its manufacture.

In addition, the resources required for the manufacture of rPET are lower compared to those for the manufacture of new polyester. In addition to the savings in using new oil, the manufacture of recycled polyester requires at least 50% less CO2 emissions and also consumes 59% less energy according to the Federal Office of Environment.

Beyond its environmental impact, rPET fabrics are just as efficient as those made from virgin PET. On the other hand, they are between 5% and 10% more expensive than traditional polyester fabric.

There you go, you already know more about rPET or recycled polyester.

rPET is a material that allows us to limit our footprint in the manufacturing of our caps and hats. This is why all of our trucker caps have a rPET mesh and a large number of our models are 100% rPET.

SO ? Are you convinced?

Please feel free to leave a comment or contact us if you have any questions.