My wife and I just returned from vacation a couple of weeks ago. We spent a fantastic week at a Caribbean resort complete with all the sunshine and white sand a person could want. It was all great with one exception: a monster rain storm that hit us on the last evening of our stay. I have recycled water bottles to thank for keeping me dry during the incredible downpour.
I know what you’re thinking. “How on earth could water bottles keep you dry in a storm?” Well, you’re in luck. I’m going to explain it to you. As you read, just remember that my description refers to recycled PET plastic bottles. These are the thin plastic bottles that hold water, juice, etc.
Walking in the Rain
To set all of this up, my wife and I decided to have dinner at a nice café located about a half mile from our resort. We knew this was the rainy season, so we took our rain gear with us. It is a good thing we did. We had no sooner finished dinner when the skies opened, and a torrential rain began to fall.
My wife had little more than a cheap, plastic poncho to keep her dry. That was her choice, by the way. As for me, I was carrying a state-of-the-art rain suit made from a waterproof fabric. The fabric was made from recycled plastic bottles. I stayed completely dry during the 10-minute walk back to the resort.
Waterproof but Breathable
I consider my rain suit one of the best investments I have ever made. As I just mentioned, it is completely waterproof. But it’s also breathable, and I don’t get overly hot wearing it. I do not sweat profusely like I did as a child wearing a rubber raincoat.
It turns out that the threads that make up the fabric repel water. They cause water to bead up, just like it does on your windshield. Those beads are too big to fit through the tiny holes between the threads, so the water can’t get in and I stay dry. At the same time though, the holes do let air pass through. That is what makes the suit breathable.
How They Make It
By now you are probably wondering how manufacturers make this incredible waterproof fabric. It starts with a company like Seraphim Plastics collecting baled PET bottles from other companies looking to recycle them. The clean and separated bottles are sent through a series of shredders to produce a material that looks like either pellets or flakes.
Textile manufacturers buy recycled plastic. They melt it down and send it through a machine that produces small fibers. Those fibers are spun into threads; the threads are woven together to make fabric. It is both clever and fascinating at the same time.
The key to making the entire system work is the bottles themselves. Seraphim Plastics only accepts baled bottles, which is to say bottles that have already been cleaned and baled together. This strategy eliminates the need for Seraphim to separate and clean the materials themselves. They wouldn’t make any money if they had to do that portion.
At any rate, I stayed completely dry in a torrential downpour by donning a rain suit made from recycled water bottles. I have owned this particular rain suit for a couple of years now. I’ll tell you what; it has given me a new perspective on plastic recycling.
We could recycle more consumer plastics if we wanted to. We just need the collective will to change the way we do things.
