Patagonia's Ongoing Recycling Program

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Toray could only provide spun yarn, made from short pieces of fiber, rather than filament, which is made from longer strands. Spun yarn tends to pill, or bunch up into little balls, which led to unsatisfactory results when Patagonia tried to use it in certain knits and woven outerwear shells. Indeed, so far it has been usable only in two lines of pants, one line of shorts, and a limited-edition bag.

Toray's recycling process also can't make use of any of the old nylon garments Patagonia has sold over the past 30 years. It can only work with color dyes and finishing chemicals specially formulated for the process—ruling out Patagonia's old nylon products and forcing the U.S. company to rethink the dyes and coatings it employs.

Stuck, Patagonia tried another tack. Instead of nylon, why not make more garments out of polyester? For this, the company turned to another Japanese producer, Teijin, which creates polyester yarn out of old factory uniforms, industrial waste, and pop bottles. Teijin produces filament yarn that's suitable to a broader range of fabrics. But because polyester has properties such as being not as abrasion-resistant as nylon, Patagonia has only been able to convert some nylon products, like alpine shell jackets, to polyester.

Promising Fabric Prospects

By collaborating with a new group of partners, some of these obstacles might be overcome. In August, Greensboro (N.C)-based Unifi (UFI) introduced a high-quality, recycled nylon filament yarn. Patagonia is now working with knitters to produce fabric to see how supple and how dyeable it is. Another promising prospect is Chain Yarn, a Taiwanese yarn vendor that takes back the waste from weavers who use its yarn to make fabrics. It then turns the waste into new yarn.

But as much as Unifi and Chain Yarn solve one part of the problem—providing recycled yarn—they don't take back used garments. Instead they recycle the waste that comes directly from their machines or weavers. So for now, Patagonia's goal of a closed-loop system for nylon remains elusive.

There's a risk such stumbling blocks will prove discouraging to Patagonia's partners, such as REI and Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC). MEC launched a clothing take-back program a year and a half ago. But the Canadian company is having a hard time setting up an efficient system for sorting through clothing to send back to recycling partners. "Patagonia has raised the bar with their Common Threads program and made recycling a viable conversation," says REI's Myette. "It's not a viable business model."

REI and MEC aren't giving up on the closed loop idea. But they're focusing more on the production part of the equation. About 20% of the fabric used to make a shirt or a skirt is wasted, because once patterns are cut, it's hard to use that cut fabric. By working with fabric makers to recycle the waste they produce, REI and MEC hope that the industry will be able to increase the amount of fabric that's recycled and recyclable.

Patagonia remains committed to its Common Threads program. And it still aims to make 100% of its apparel line recyclable. But the company also recognizes that goods such as luggage, backpacks, wet suits, and shoes present challenges and will take more time. "We need to be aware of what we are making and what is done with it," says Patagonia's Dumain.

Green is an associate editor for BusinessWeek .