Cycling apparel with a conscience

It's always nice to see companies with a conscience. One such manufacturer is OORR (Out of the Rat Race) out of Australia. The owner, Tim, is creating a line of cycling clothing made from 75-100% recycled plastic bottles.

What I find interesting is that the bottles are broken down and reformed into polyester yarn. This material can be recycled and reprocessed again and again without degradation to quality. It only takes three steps to manufacture polyester yarn from plastic bottles. While converting oil into polyester yarn takes 9 steps. So not only is OORR keeping the bottles out of landfills, they are also using less energy to produce the yarn that constructs their products.

 

OORR is in the process of producing prototypes of their jerseys and bibs and should be ready later next month. As a contributing writer and product reviewer of RoadBikeRider.com I'm lucky enough to be receiving one of the prototype kits to test out. I'm very excited to see how it feels, wears and performs.

Trek is another cycling manufacturer that is helping the environment through recycling carbon fiber. Back in 2010 they started partnering with Carbon Conversions to recycle 60,000 pounds of scrap metal each year. Read more about their process here.


Let's hope that more manufacturers in the cycling industry and throughout follow suit and start using recycled or sustainable materials for their products. We all have a responsibility to leave this world a little better than how we found it.

Enjoy the ride.
Sheri