It's increasingly likely that the next piece of clothing youbuy could contain sustainable fabrics, even a re-cycled plastic bottle or yarnfrom the shop room floor.


Sustainable clothing is made of a diverse web of organic andnatural fibers, sustainable crops, and materials that replace petroleum, suchas fabric from soy or corn.


The $3 billion industry could create the most significantshift in apparel manufacturing and marketing since the Industrial Revolution,according to market research company Packaged Facts. But the green clothingmovement isn't just about raw materials. It's also about recycling.


At its simplest, recycling clothing can apply to buyingitems at a thrift or consignment shop. But manufacturers are going beyond that,taking fabric scraps and fibers, or worn out clothing, and recycling it intosomething new.


Gramicci, based in Agoura Hills, has used recycled andorganic materials in its products since it started, but decided to create agreen line in 2005, said President Marty Weening. The Greenici line has gonefrom zero to about 40 percent of Gramicci's business, Weening said.


The company's Re-Gen Twill is made of recycled hemp andorganic cotton yarn swept up from the sample room floor. Combined with organiccotton, the fabric is used for men's blazers and women's jackets. Its PitchPerformance Fleece is made from 55 percent recycled polyester.


Weening said the real change has been moving sustainableapparel beyond its early "earthy humbleness" to something moreappealing to consumers, with the same design standards as regular clothing.


In terms of the company's organic line, Weening saidGramicci created a sportswear product people wouldn't automatically know wasorganic. "Organic became the added value," he said. The price remainedthe same as regular sportswear. "Therein lies the true foundation ofwhat's going to make organic apparel really succeed," he said.


Weening said companies, large and small, are making effortsto be more sustainable in how they operate. He noted it is becoming part of thebusiness model. "It's almost an expectation now, which is great," hesaid.


Weening isn't worried about more competition, saying thatGramicci already is differentiated in the market as a brand that is innovative,inventive and kind of irreverent. For outdoor apparel manufacturers, the greenlabel encompasses a set of ideals their customers hold.


"The core customers have always gotten it," Weeningsaid. "It has always been part of their makeup to be maybe a bit moreconscious of the environment." Sustainable materials resonate with thatawareness, he said.


Ventura-based Patagonia, an early leader in clothing madefrom organic and recycled materials, started using recycled soda bottles injackets in 1993. The company started asking customers to send back their wornout clothing for recycling into new items in 2005.


Recycling polyester means using less virgin polyester, whichtranslates into less oil, according to the company's Web site. The recyclingprocess also uses less energy in manufacturing.


 

Patagonia's Common Threads Garment Recycling Program has customers return worn out base layers, fleece, cotton T-shirts and other polyester and nylon products. Customers can mail in items or drop them off at retail stores.


Sustainable clothing raises some of its own questions bamboo is a sustainable crop, but uses a lot of chemicals and water to become fabric; and genetically modified soy and corn replaces petroleum in polyester, Packaged Facts reports.


Recycled materials benefit from using pre-existing material but have environmental costs of collecting, transporting, cleaning, reclaiming and remaking the fiber. But Packaged Facts notes recycling is of great interest to sustainable apparel advocates.


Patagonia acknowledged the increased shipping to recycle old polyester garments and did a detailed comparison. It found that, while local recycling would use the least amount of energy and create the least amount of carbon dioxide, shipping the garments off for recycling still used about four times less energy and produced more than three times less carbon dioxide than when the fabric was made without recycled material.


But what about clothing not made by Patagonia? There's a way to recycle that, too, beyond dropping off the still wearable stuff at a thrift shop. Thrift shops, such as Goodwill, will accept more than just the lightly used clothing people drop off for sale in its stores. People with any old textiles can drop those off as well.


The salvage market isn't a money maker for Goodwill, but is a way to keep those items out of landfills, said Bryan Haneiwich, director of operations and retail services for Goodwill Industries of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.


Peter Mayberry, executive director of the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, said many people still send old clothes, linens and towels to the dump. Textile recycling companies often complain they don't have enough material to meet demand, Mayberry said. So the message is to get people to drop off the old stuff so it can be put to use again.


The clothing goes through a recycling hierarchy. First, the thrift store will look for anything it wants to sell. Then it will sell pallets of the remaining material. The recycler will sort again, with top grades going to boutiques around the world and still-usable apparel exported in bales to high-demand areas, such as Africa and Central and South America.


What cannot be reused can be cut up into rags or the fibers recovered, Mayberrry said. "We are very keen on getting that message out more broadly," Mayberry said. "Don't throw it in the trash. Donate it."