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Anti-plastic infographics

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions 1 Comment

It doesn’t matter how well you write, sometimes, just sometimes, you need a bloody good graphic to get the case across…..

and there is some fantastic work out there on the internet.

Here are just some of the great campaigns we have featured. To  see more visit our fantastic anti-plastic infographic  gallery

Decided to give up plastic? Need some nice anti-plastic posters and imagery to illustrate your new lifestyle choice? Course you do so check out this For more infographics….  Pinterest  and lots of fantastic artwork by extremely talented people.

..you have nothing to loose but your chainstores hahahahahahhhahhaaa

 

Check out this fantastic bit of art work. Sadly I don’t know who did it but we can thank Danielle for passing it on. Do check out her fantastic good works over at her blog it starts with me

water waste

Do you know people still drinking bottled water? Show them this… click the image to check out the organisation behind this image. You will be glad you did.

 

Upcycling floppy discs

by Posted in 1.51 Reusing & Recycling Plastic Tagged 2 Comments

floppy disc planters

Is this a bit bonkers? Or incredibly sweet? Floppy discs (who still has those?) into planters. From recycle Uk Facebook page – recommended!

Want more crafty projects?

Have a look at what these talented folk have done over in the arty crafty part of this blog and visit my PINTEREST board for funky ideas. The people over there are so clever aren’t they?

More information

There are many other ways to recycle and reuse waste plastic, from arty (make your own lampshade) to the very strange.
but our favourite solution is to REFUSE plastics.

make bakeplastic freeHow To Boycott Plastic

Find plastic-free products with the

Plastic-free Resource Index

Read up about plastic & the boycott here

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squirrels eating plastic

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged 5 Comments

What squirrels should be eating … and what they are eating. Thanks to  Harry Shuldman for this great picture …..

squirrel in Wash. Sq. Park forcing a wadded up plastic bag down its throat

In his own words… “squirrel in Wash. Sq. Park forcing a wadded up plastic bag down its throat. I tried to shoo him away to stop him from eating the bag, but he was determined to finish it. This is why you need to throw your trash in the trash!”

Of course, as we would say, boycott the filthy stuff.

Every year plastic is implicated in the death and crippling of animals worldwide

Check out the Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish photo pool.. for some really fantastic pictures of plastic polltuion.

More dirty pictures can be found here –  plastic pollution picture index g

Plastic Aware Projects Archive

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies, 6 archive 1 Comment

Campus to track plastic use for new project Here’s an interesting report from the Daily Californian

English: Campus of the UC Berkeley in Berkeley...

English: Campus of the UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California, United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two weeks ago, the campus ( UC Berkeley)  secured funding for a zero-waste research center to study where waste on campus is coming from and what can be done to reduce it. The first action the center will take is adoption of the Plastic Disclosure Project, a worldwide initiative asking the business world to report and assess how much plastic waste it is producing.

The project was founded last year by UC Berkeley alumnus Doug Woodring, who witnessed the effects of plastic in local waters and at the North Pacific Gyre, an aggregate of plastic floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Woodring said the project is looking to work with businesses “to hold a mirror up to themselves” and address how plastic production and waste effect plastic pollution in oceans. UC Berkeley will be the first campus in the world to join the project.

Read the rest of the article here

Mechanical Methods Of Recycling Plastic

by Posted in 1.51 Reusing & Recycling Plastic Tagged 6 Comments

Most plastics are recycled mechanically though they can also be recycled other ways.

Compared with lucrative recycling of materials, such as glass and metal, plastic polymers recycling is often more challenging because of low density and low value. There are also numerous technical hurdles to overcome when recycling plastic. Wikkipedia

Mechanical Recycling

Mechanical recycling, very simply, consists of melting down the old plastic and using it to make new products

Mechanical recycling can only be done a few times before the polymers break down and the quality of the plastic degrades. So, unlike glass for instance, you cannot necessarily use mechanically recycled polymers to remake the same product. You have to use them to make something different. The chain of recycling might go as follows

  • Virgin PET bottle to fleece or carpet
  • Carpet fibers to plastic lumber.
  • Plastic lumber to waste disposal plant – though manufacturers claim that plastic lumber can be recycled again.

This process is sometimes called DOWNCYCLING.

Sadly it is not quite as easy as that. There are hundreds of kinds of plastic – some easy to recycle, others not (plastic film for example ). Consequently is not cost effective to recycle all plastics. While it is theoretically possible to recycle nearly all plastics. generally it is  the simpler plastics that actually are recycled.

ALL the above is open to change and may have changed by the time you read this. It will also depend where you are reading it.  

Sorting Plastics for recycling

Plastics must often be of nearly identical composition to mix efficiently.Wikkipedia

When different types of plastics are melted together, they tend to phase- separate, like oil and water, and set in these layers. The phase boundaries cause structural weakness in the resulting material, meaning that polymer blends are useful in only limited applications. Wikkipedia

recycled plastic lumber featuredThis means that plastics have to be identified and sorted into types. In the olden days recyclers had to rely on the plastic code stamped onto the plastic product and sort by that. These days most use automatic sort systems to identify the resin, such as near infrared (NIR) technology. “NIR sorting is the industry’s preferred plastics sorting technology because it can accurately identity the many different polymers already in use today (different polymers reflect an identifiable light spectrum).” Inez

NB PLA plastic manufacturers claim that NIR technology can recognise PLA plastics (compostatble plastics) and so refute the oft stated claim that PLA plastics bugger up the recycling system. You can see some test results here.

Additives, fillers, and reinforcements are used to change and improve the physical and mechanical properties of plastics. However the widespread use of dyes, fillers, and other additives in plastics can also affect the ease with which they are recycled.  You can read about plastic additives here

“The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags, allowing them to be recycled more often.
The percentage of plastic that can be fully recycled, rather than downcycled or go to waste can be increased when manufacturers of packaged goods minimize mixing of packaging materials and eliminate contaminants. The Association of Plastics Recyclers have issued a Design Guide for Recyclability. Wikkipedia

You can read the Design Guide for Recyclability. here

Mechanical Recycling Case Studies

Melt & Reform my visit to a mechanical plastic recycling plant recycled lastic chair featured

Melt & Press – making innovative plastic sheeting

Plastic lumber sturdy, longlasting and functional? Or tacky as anything!

Make your own plastic recycling machine.

More on recycling here

Other ways to recycle and reuse plastic trash here

Recycling and  waste plastic – a discussion

Related recycling posts

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Bryan Slat’s Sea Hoover – an update

by Posted in 1.5 Technofix & Cleaner Plastics 7 Comments

Those of you watching the Boyan Slat story might be interested to know that the first prototype is now up and floating in the North Sea. Remember Boyan Slat? The guy who proposed hoovering the oceans of plastic debris using solar powered bots? It was back in 2012 that he first suggested it. While the idea was much praised, indeed his TEDx Talk on the subject went viral, there were almost as many negative responses.
Perhaps with some justification. the boy was 19 and still at college and his ideas undeveloped and untested. But still….

Proposal

You can read his proposal for yourself here….

“The essence of Marine Litter Extraction is, instead of fighting it, to use the ocean to your advantage.
The gyres are 5 areas in world’s oceans where rotating currents create an accumulating mass of plastic, dubbed ‘Garbage Patches’. Moving through the oceans to collect plastic would be costly, clumsy and polluting, so why not let the rotating currents transport the debris to you? With Marine Litter Extraction, an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms will span the radius of such a gyre.These booms act as giant ‘funnels’, where a slight angle of the booms create a component of the surface current force in the direction of the platforms.

The debris then enters the platforms, where it will be separated from plankton, filtered out of the water, and eventually stored in containers until collected.

Feasibility Study

Undaunted by adverse comments he went on to found The Ocean Cleanup foundation, a crowd funded, crowd sourced team of voluntary scientists and engineers to work on the project.

From Boyan Slat’s open letter “As some of you may have noticed, The Ocean Cleanup has just released its feasibility study, investigating the technical and financial viability of the concept I proposed 1.5 years ago. After the concept went viral one year ago, and (besides a tremendous amount of support) I also faced criticism about the feasibility of my concept, I then decided to assemble a team of about 100 people, with whom we performed a feasibility study.The report, authored by 70 people, covers all major topic, including engineering, physical oceanography, ecology, maritime law, finance and recycling.

ABSTRACT

The research described in this feasibility study concludes that The Ocean Cleanup Array is likely a feasible and viable method to remove large amounts of plastic pollution from the North Pacific Gyre. Computer simulations have shown that floating barriers are suitable to capture and concentrate most of this plastic. Combined with ocean currents models to determine how much plastic would encounter the structure, a combined cleanup efficiency of 42% of all plastic within the North Pacific gyre can be achieved using a 100 km array. In collaboration with offshore experts, it has been determined that this array can be made and installed using current materials and technologies. The estimated costs are in total of 317 million euro, or 31.7 million euro per year. This translates to 4.53 euro per collected kg of ocean trash.

First Prototype Launched

And now there is this

THE HAGUE, June 22, 2016 – The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, today unveiled its North Sea prototype. When installed later this week, the prototype will become the first ocean cleanup system ever tested at sea. The prototype will be installed in the North Sea, 23 km (12 NM) off the Dutch coast, where it will remain for one year. The objective is to test how The Ocean Cleanup’s floating barrier fares in extreme weather at sea – the kind of conditions the system will eventually face when deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Well Done YOU!

So exciting. We will be watching with interest.

You can keep up to date with the project over on their website

 

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Composting Standards

by Posted in 1.4 Additives Fact Sheets, 3.1 Composting, 3.6 Good to know Tagged , , 6 Comments

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its the only sustainable way to deal with our waste… we love it.

Biodegradable means …..
Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism, such as fungi or bacteria over a period of time.
They must degrade into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem.
You can read more about that HERE

Compostable means…..
To be classed compostable, items must
Biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades.)The resulting particles must be very small.
The resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Composting Standards
For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the
European Norm EN13432
This is a EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC), EN 13432:2000 – “Packaging: requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation”
It was introduced in 2000.
It has been adopted by the UK and is published as BS EN 13432 by the British Standards Institution.
Comprehensive evidence has to be submitted before a product gets ‘compostable’ certification.

Home Composting V Industrial Composting

HOWEVER compostable in this instance means that these certified products will break down in an industrial composters.
Industrial composting are large scale schemes.
Home composting is a bin in your back yard.
The difference is is that industrial composting is a lot hotter and can work more quickly.
Therefore, while a product might be classed as both biodegradable and compostable, it might not break down in a backyard compost bin.

Home Composting

Vinçotte, a Belgian accredited inspection and certification organisation,  provide a home composting certification service. Products that display the ‘OK Compost Home’ logo, can go in your bin.

The Association for Organics Recycling is working to establish a similar specification for the UK.

Compostable Plastics

Cellulose derived plastics such as Cellophane. These plant derived plastics are amongst the first examples of the product and do biodegrade. ­
Starch based plastics which are compostable such as PLA plastics. They are certified compostable and do biodegrade.

Composting Compostable Plastic At Home
While most agree that compostable plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in industrial composters. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.
AND I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. We have used and composted a number of products (including Biobags , Deli pots  and disposable Cutlery)
It does take longer than other products and  sometimes I have found shreds of it in my compost but I dig it into the soil where it quickly disappears.

Bioplastics
Most compostable plastics are bioplastics. Bioplastics are made from natural materials such as corn starch. However not all are compostable. For example Ethane based plastics as used Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle which replaces 30 percent of the ethanol in their normal polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle with 30 percent plant-derived ethanol. This means the bottle is still considered PET and can be recycled but is NOT biodegradable. Find out more here.

To be sure you are getting a compostable plastic get one that has been certified.

More

Check out all our composting posts HERE

Remember, not all bio- plastics can be composted and do not biodegrade – bioplastics dont mean biodegradable. Yup its confusing but try everything you ever wanted to know about plastic.but were too scared to ask, to find out a lot more about plastic.

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Polylactic acid, (PLA)

by Posted in 1.3 Plastic Types - Fact Sheets Tagged , , , 1 Comment

There are some truly biodegradable and compostable bioplastics.
Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here.
To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Compostable Plastics – PLA

Polylactic acid, (PLA), plastic is an example of a biodegradable bioplastic. PLA or polylactide was discovered in 1932 by Carothers (at DuPont). (Whats a bioplastic? Find out here)

PLA is a bio-polymer
Bio-polymers can be produced from natural resources
A natural bio-polymers is one that is extracted directly from biological raw materials such as cellulose and cotton from plants, wool from sheep and silk from moths
Man made bio-polymers are also derived from plants but then further treated using chemicals.

Poly-lactic acid (PLA), falls into this category.
PLA is made from the starch found in plants including beets, sugar cane, and tapioca.. Starch is a natural polymer, a white, granular carbohydrate produced by plants during photosynthesis Starch can be made into bio-plastic. However when exposed to water starch bio-plastic swells and deforms.To stop this happening the starch needs to be modified

Starch is transformed into PLA by;
1) Using microorganisms to transform it into a lactic acid – a monomer
2) Then chemically treating the lactic acid to create a long chain polymer, polylactic acid – PLA

There are several different types of Polylactic Acid
Racemic PLLA (Poly-L-lactic Acid),
Regular PLLA (Poly-L-lactic Acid),
PDLA (Poly-D-lactic Acid),
and PDLLA (Poly-DL-lactic Acid).

Recycling

PLA can be recycled back into lactic acid and used to make products of the same quality as the original- there is no down-cycling. Currently only recycled in Wisconsin and Belgium.

Biodegradable

PLA products biodegrade into water, carbon dioxide and organic materials. and so can be composted.

“First, the moisture and heat in the compost pile split the polymer chains apart, creating smaller polymers, and finally, lactic acid. Micro-organisms in compost and soil consume the smaller polymer fragments and lactic acid as nutrients. Since lactic acid is widely found in nature, a large number of organisms metabolize lactic acid.  The end result of composting is carbon dioxide, water and humus, a soil nutrient.  This degradation process is temperature and humidity dependent. “
In commercial composters this should take about 30-45 days. In home composting bins it might take longer. Obviously the bulkier the product the harder it is to break down, and the longer it takes.

Rotting Away

a PLA bottle left in the ocean will biodegrade in six to 24 months.
It can be used for medical implants that biodegrade over time

NB PLA will not compost in landfill.

Composting PLA Plastic At Home
While most agree that PLA plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.
Moreover I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. We have used and composted the following PLA plastic products ( including Biobags , Deli pots  and disposable Cutlery  )

The Rest

Are PLA products safe to eat?
People …PLA products are not edible yet are generally non-toxic. Small pieces of PLA will most likely pass harmlessly through the gastrointestinal tract. Once passed through the gastrointestinal tract it will be eliminated in the stool. 
Pigs …PLA can apparently be returned to the food chain. I have heard it suggested that you can feed it to your pig. Please double check.
I am allergic to corn; could I still use PLA products?
Yes, the heat used in the process of deriving the starch from corn destroys the immunologically reactive profiilin. Profilin is the chemical that usually causes an allergic reaction and is not found in PLA products.

Burning PLA Plastic
PLA will not emit toxic fumes when incinerated.

Useful stuff to know

Remember, not all bio- plastics can be composted and some are not as green as they sound
Find out about composting here.

PLA products I use  

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Compost Bin basic – cheap but rats!

by Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged

I’ve had my compost bin for 14 months now and I am very pleased with it. I use it for garden litter which saves on boring trips to the tip, and kitchen waste which it gobbles up by the bucket load. This, rather than compost, is what I bought it for. Biodegradable waste does not do well in the unnatural conditions of a rubbish dump. It bubbles away producing methane which adds to the greenhouse effect. Simply by putting my kitchen waste in a different bin I am reducing my carbon footprint.

It is also a practical investment for the future. The Uk government is committed to reducing the amount of biodegradable waste in landfill by 50%, by the year 2020; I don’t know how they plan to do this – compulsory composting perhaps? Separate waste collections? Investing in herds of municipal swine? Whatever – as 30% of uk domestic waste is organic this is bound to affect us all. Setting up a home composting system seems a sensible precaution.

There are many different ways to compost, from the traditional heap at the bottom of the garden to micro biological systems. Being new to composting I chose the easiest and cheapest option – a plastic bin stood in the garden. I got mine from Kirklees Council in partnership with Recycle Now. Recycle Now offer advice on all things pertaining to compost. They also sell a range of composting bins which, if you are a Kirklees resident, you can buy at a subsidised rate. There are some real bargains to be had.

As a waste disposal unit my compost bin was fantastic and massively reduced the amount going in my black bin.

The the RATS arrived!

Now I had been extremely careful what I put in it. No cooked food or dairy was to be found in there but seems the rats liked salad.

I stopped putting food waste in but the rats stayed. It was like a kind of rat hive in there.

And they ate everything I gave them, even the Leylandii hedge clippings. Now while I admire anything that can eat,and apparently enjoy Leylandii, I cant stand rats.

So I went out and  got myself a Green Johanna   compost bin. It is considered to be the rolls Royce of compost bins, and  is priced appropriately. However it claimed to be rat proof. You can read about it here

The black bin was abandoned till everything in it turned to compost. It was then moved to the allotment where it is happy eating leaves and other gardening detritus.

 

Work in progress

by Posted in 6 archive

On some servers this page is corrupt. Please follow the link to new page.

Work in progress

Working with fabric

One of the much touted benefits of plastic is that it reduces pressure on natural resources. Nowhere is this more ...
Read More

Elastine

I wear mostly natural fibres but occasionally have problems with elasticine. I thought this referred to elastic. So when the ...
Read More

Cork

Flexible Rubber cork Nitrile rubber is synthetic rubber. it can be used to bond cork to make a flexible sheetlike ...
Read More

Sponges

You want a sponge? You could try a natural one but please do be sure it is sustainabley harvested... like ...
Read More

Bleaching Paper

Until the 1990s, chlorine was mostly used for bleaching paper because it does the job very efficiently. The downside is ...
Read More

Watch – wooden

Who wouldn't want a wooden time piece to mark the hours ? Buy one from WeWood in Australia and they will also ...
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Burning plastic in the home

Some feel my worrying about plastic in the home is taking it too far?  Disposables? Yes, they can see I ...
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Tiffin Tin

There is some fantastic street food in China but they serve it in polystyrene (styrofoam) trays. So you will need ...
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Air Miles & Buying British

One of the joys of living plastic free is mooching round the shops seeing what you can source. Better still if ...
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Make up

It is a long time since I have worn make up. My excuse would be the most of it comes ...
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Fabric – An Introduction

Post Index Definitions Fibres to fabrics Introduction and definitions  Making Fabric Types  Of Fabric Fabric Weights  Why Organic & Fair-trade  ...
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Fabric Natural

Textiles and ultimately clothing start with fibres Know Your Fibres Textiles and ultimately clothing start with fibres Know Your Fibres ...
Read More

Halloween labels and flour paste!

Print and stick  these creepy labels onto a wine bottles to make a suitably  themed halloween gift  - but don't ...
Read More

Large Scale Composting Case Studies

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its a ...
Read More

Rubber

There are two major categories of rubber; natural and synthetic. The most popular compounds are; Natural RubberVulcanised RubberSynthetic History Thousands of ...
Read More

Tampons

Whats In Your Tampon Most Tampons are made of cotton, rayon, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene. Some of these materials are not ...
Read More

2017 Plastic Free July

Of course every month is plastic free for me but plastic free July is a time to make a bit ...
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Clothing – Specialist U.V. resistant, Sportswear & Swimwear

Cycling Talking of stunning, look at these cycling outfits. Made not from synthetics but lovely merino wool. They do tops ...
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Empty

being updated ...
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Post Corrupted empty

...
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Spices including pepper

Dried and ground can be bought Loose The Nut Shop Leeds Market HERE If you cannot get to Leeds you ...
Read More

Water – Index

You're in the right place for information on Tap Water U.K. Refill Schemes – in the U.K. Carbonated Water Make ...
Read More

Glue

So many glues, so many man-made polymers. Plastic? In glue? Oh don’t get me started! Yes lots of it, and ...
Read More

Exfoliate

Microbeads.... the newest way to exfoliate. These tiny particles, or microbeads, scrub away at the skin supposedly leaving it wonderfully ...
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Compost Bins Which Is Best For You

lets talk waste. Waste is used to describe: materials not needed after primary production: the unwanted byproduct of a process: ...
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Bubble wrap and jiffy bags

I do buy a lot of building stuff on line (for work you understand – it’s not a hobby), and ...
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A Whole Universe of Creativity

British Wool - A case study. This lovely piece of work is utterly inspiring. And plastic free. And made using ...
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Disposable Cups

Disposable cups are made from plastic lined paper, polystyrene or plastic. To make paper cups water proof they are laminated with polyethylene, ...
Read More

The Range – a chain of home & garden shops

Loose pet food, home wares and some loose sweets. Being committed to local shopping, I prefer to buy that way ...
Read More

Menstrual internal protection reusable

Products to deal with menstruation are plastic heavy  ( see some stats). They are made from plastic, come wrapped in plastic, ...
Read More

Compost bin in a kitchen cupboard

by Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 2 Comments

I am lucky enough to have a garden where I can keep  my compost bin. However if you don’t have the space, you could try one of these and compost in your kitchen.How it works?

composter composter2

Naturemill Automatic Compost Bin.

Two chamber design: So clean and easy, you can even compost indoors. Add food at any time into the  upper  chamber. Heat, mixing, and oxygen help the natural  cultures  break down the food within days – before odors  develop. Push a button to transfer  to the  tray below. It will continue to compost there for another week, while you fill  the upper chamber again. Remove the tray at your convenience.

Here is a Treehugger review

Buy

This company are based in America though the company does list European suppliers

David Tapley might sell them in the UK and possibly this guy on Amazon.

Why

Why compost – well it means no more plastic bin liners, along with numerous other benefits.

More

You can find a whole load of other ways to compost here

 

 

Antimony in fabrics

by Posted in 1.4 Additives Fact Sheets Tagged

Yet more reasons to reduce your plastic use …. quoted highlights from an extremely interesting article from the never dull O Ecotextiles PLEASE NOTE the quotes are the points that struck me, I strongly reccomend you read the whole article to place the quotes in context and access the citations.

“65% of the world’s production of fibers are synthetic, and 35% are natural fibers. (1) Fully 70% of those synthetic fibers are polyester.

There are many different types of polyester, but the type most often produced for use in textiles is polyethylene terephthalate, abbreviated PET. Used in a fabric, it’s most often referred to as “polyester” or “poly”. It is very cheap to produce, which is the primary driver for its use in the textile industry.

Annual PET production requires 104 million barrels of oil – that’s 70 million barrels just to produce the virgin polyester used in fabrics.

Antimony is used as a catalyst to create PET.

Antimony is present in 80 – 85% of all virgin PET. Antimony is a carcinogen, and toxic to the heart, lungs, liver and skin.

Antimony used in the production of PET fibers becomes chemically bound to the PET polymer so although your PET fabric contains antimony, it isn’t available to your living system. (3)

Antimony is leached from the fibers during the high temperature dyeing process. The antimony that leaches from the fibers is expelled with the wastewater…. Countries that can afford technologies that precipitate the metals out of the solution are left with a hazardous sludge …..Countries who cannot or who are unwilling to employ these end-of-pipe treatments release antimony along with a host of other dangerous substances to open waters.”