Pure Waste’s products are made from 100% post industrial recycled materials, from the factory floor to classic, high-quality products made to last. During the company’s development, unable to find a textile made of 100% recycled materials, they set about to be one of the first to do so.

The use of virgin materials throughout the textile industry is often resource-heavy and has huge ecological ramifications. Every year, the global apparel industry creates 24 million tonnes of new cotton. Pure Waste estimates that of the 95% of textile waste that could be recycled, only 15% of this is utilized. During cotton cultivation, it requires, on average, 11,000 liters of water to grow one kilogram of cotton. Further, water is used in finishing, processing, and dyeing processes. 

Pure Waste uses only recycled materials and makes blends to create high-quality products. Without using any virgin materials, its raw material comes from local factories' cutting waste, which is mechanically recycled, spun, knitted, or woven, and made into new garments at its factory in Tamil Nadu. Recycled waste is sorted by color, meaning new garments avoid going through the dying process, reducing water and chemical usage. The Finnish company not only uses waste material but also provides a "take-back" scheme to allow customers to return products at the end of their lifecycle. Currently, Pure Waste garments can be returned to Helsinki stores and are recycled for research and development. The Finnish company based in Helsinki runs all its production out of Tamil Nadu, India, and runs off 90% renewable energy. In keeping with their sustainable ethos, their designs are unisex, classic styles that allow for the product catalog to be compact and manageable. 

Upon implementing their return scheme, they received nearly one tonne of clothes and recycled this waste into the new fabric as part of a pilot program named "the Telaketju II project."

Pure Waste explains in detail throughout their sustainability report that by avoiding the use of virgin fibers they have already saved nearly 4 billion liters of water and over 2 million kilograms of CO2 emissions. These statistics break down to 2,700 liters of water saved for every T-shirt made from recycled materials.

Photo credit: Janko Ferlič

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