As the record-breaking heat across the country suggests, summer will soon be upon us (although we’re still freezing in San Francisco!). We’re always grateful for warm weather and longer days, but as the thermometer rises, so does water consumption.

Americans throw away 5 billion plastic bottles every summer, and a staggering number of them—with estimates ranging from 77 to 90 percent—end up in landfills.

Interestingly, in 1995, 40 percent of all PET bottles were recycled, a number that dropped down to 23 percent a mere 10 years later.

What’s even more disheartening (or encouraging, depending on your optimism on a given day), is the overwhelming demand for recycled PET flakes—a demand we can’t meet at present. Salon asks the pertinent question: If we’re consuming more plastic than ever, why can’t post-consumer plastic supply match demand?

Are people getting lazier? Are they recycling less? Not necessarily, experts say. In a word, the problem is infrastructure, not apathy. Consumption has more than doubled in the last 10 years, a rate of growth the recycling industry simply hasn’t been able to sustain.

The good news is, with better infrastructure, there’s potential to develop an entirely new, environmentally-friendly industry. PET plastics are one of the only completely recyclable materials: They can be made into anything from new bottles to tents to t-shirts. The graphic to the right, provided by NPR, details the process from bottle to fabric.

For information on local recycling programs, check out Earth911.com. Simply enter what your location and what you need to recycle, and the site will provide a list of local centers. Patagonia and Nau both offer lines of recycled PET clothing. Let us know if you have any other companies to recommend as leading the charge to use recycled PET.

We spend a lot of time touting the environmental benefits of using AirDye® over conventional dyeing methods. But today we’re going to talk about how AirDye benefits you, the consumer. Beyond supporting a greener textile industry, one of the advantages of owning an AirDye product is what we call “no rules wash.” Here’s how it works: Instead of mixing dye with water and placing color on the surface of the fabric, AirDye instantly transforms dye from a solid to a gas. When the synthetic fabric heats up, the molecules in the fiber expand and the gas embeds itself inside the fibers of the garment. When the fabric cools down, the dye is a part of the garment itself, not just a layer on top of it.

Since the dye is part of the fabric, the color is basically untouchable—it never fades and garments can last far beyond 100 washes. In the video below, we pour bleach onto two shirts: one dyed with AirDye and another dyed using conventional methods. You’ll see the conventionally dyed shirt begins to discolor almost immediately, while the AirDye shirt remains unharmed. AirDye produces a garment with a far longer life, which dramatically reduces waste and promotes sustainability—after all, the most sustainable product is one you don’t have to replace.

So go ahead, throw caution to the wind. Break the rules of washing. Don’t separate colors. Skip the delicate cycle. Live in your clothes.

Everywhere we look here at HD Expo we see bold, beautiful color. Deep purples, oranges, greens, even pinks are being incorporated into carpets, upholstery, drapery, wall covering and bedding. Here’s a sample of what’s on the show floor:

This is the first thing you see when you come onto the floor–talk about color!

Here’s our VP of Marketing and Design, Bonnie Julian at the Global Lighting display. Even the usually boring light fixtures are colorful. And we particularly love this one: truly design in motion. The bold colors continue at the Benjamin Moore display. Here is their 2010 forecast palette. What did we tell you? Boring old neutrals are out.

Here’s Bonnie with Shaw Hospitality Group’s bold carpet designs. We also like the fact that Shaw is offering sustainable products and great design.

And the last one we just had to share is Britto’s wall coverings. Talk about big, bold color. You can’t ignore it, color is back. And we’re thrilled, did you notice the colors we chose for our booth?

With so many companies touting green products, it’s hard to differentiate between true green initiatives and (truly) good marketing campaigns. To help you wade through some of the hype, we’ve put together a quick guide to green fabrics.

organic cotton

Twenty-five percent of the world’s insecticides are used on conventional cotton. While organic cotton offers an appealing alternative because it’s pesticide free, it’s not without caveats. First, cotton of any kind requires a tremendous amount of water to grow—about 715 gallons per shirt. Second, since the United States is only responsible for about 2 percent of worldwide cotton production, organic cotton is typically grown abroad and shipped overseas, resulting in a pretty hefty carbon footprint. Your best bet is to buy from U.S.-grown sources. Check out Brand of the Free for graphic tees made from cotton in Texas.

bamboo

Bamboo, as a plant, is unbelievably sustainable to grow—it’s the process from farm to fabric that’s laden with chemical treatments. The result? A very small percentage of bamboo fabric can be certified sustainable. There’s a small segment of bamboo fabric production that doesn’t use chemicals, but the process is labor and resource intensive and, therefore, much more costly.

hemp

Hemp is naturally a very sustainable crop that requires little water and typically no chemicals to produce, and yields a much larger harvest than cotton. Since hemp produces a coarser fabric, it’s great for tougher materials like jeans and outerwear. However, because of U.S. restrictions on hemp growth, much like organic cotton, hemp is largely grown overseas.

recycled PET fabric

On the synthetic side, recycled PET fabric, made from post-consumer plastics, is a seriously sustainable contender. In its original form, PET is used to make plastic bottles and polyester. Recycled PET can be made into fiber for nearly anything from carpet to clothing. The fabric feels similar to polyester and works especially well with outdoor wear. Check out Nau for a modern, super sleek line of recycled polyester clothing.

The bottom line? Buy local when possible, buy hemp or organic cotton when it’s not, and think of recycled synthetics as a major part of the solution.

Welcome to the AirDye—Good for Water blog. AirDye is an innovative new technology that seeks to change the way the world dyes textiles. As an industry, textile manufacturing and dyeing is one of the most wasteful and environmentally damaging. At AirDye, we’ve created a technology to eliminate the need for water in the dyeing process: a step that currently drains the earth of 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, an astonishingly high amount of which ends up polluting local water sources. In a commitment to change these harmful practices, and with the belief that through innovation and technology our industry can do better, we’re launching this blog on Earth Day.

greening the textile industry

First, we want to tell you a bit about what we’re doing to pioneer new, greener practices for the textile industry. As the name suggests, AirDye uses air to dye fabric, bypassing the liquid state of dye altogether. Here’s a basic breakdown of the technology: Instead of mixing dye with water and placing it on the surface of a fabric, our process transforms dye from a solid to a gas, eliminating the liquid state and therefore the need for water. When synthetic fabric is exposed to a certain temperature, the molecules in the fiber begin to expand. In this porous state, gaseous dye enters the space in between fibers and when fabric cools the dye is trapped in the fiber permanently.

Aside from the potentially trillions of gallons of water this process spares, the benefit to you, the consumer, is something we call “no rules wash.” Since the dye is actually a part of the fabric itself, rather than a layer that rests on top of it, color doesn’t fade and garments can last far beyond 100 washes. (Even pouring bleach on a shirt won’t damage the color.) An AirDye garment has a far longer life, which dramatically reduces disposability and promotes sustainability—after all, the most sustainable product is one you don’t have to replace.

pioneering social change

The implications of AirDye reach far beyond technology. Nearly a billion people go without access to clean, safe drinking water. With 4,700 people dying each day from a lack of potable water, we simply cannot, in good conscience, continue to waste trillions of gallons of water dyeing fabric. Beyond preserving precious resources, dyeing textiles without water expands opportunity for entirely new industries in developing nations that don’t have the water for traditional textile production.

join the conversation

In the days and weeks to come, we’ll be blogging about a wide range of topics, from water scarcity to eco-fashion. At AirDye, we believe vigorous debate and open exchange of ideas always leads to smarter practices. We hope you’ll join the conversation. Happy Earth Day.