How the Plastic Bottle Became the Unlikely Hero of Sustainable Fashion

The beverage industry's castoffs are yielding new products, and fresh marketing opportunities

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Every second, Americans use 1,500 plastic bottles. And despite the prevalence of recycling, 80% of those bottles end up in a landfill or in the ocean. What’s worse: Plastic isn’t biodegradable—those bottles will take up to 1,000 years to break down.

Though still a ubiquitous sight at grocery stores and restaurants, few materials have suffered a worse blow to their reputation than plastic thanks to growing consumer consciousness around climate change. Plastic straws are being phased out by major eateries like Starbucks, plastic bags are banned in Hawaii and California, plastic bottles won’t be sold anymore in the San Francisco airport, and Nestlé is phasing out single-use plastics by 2025.

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This story first appeared in the Nov. 4, 2019, issue of Brandweek.