What is Recycled Yarn?
Recycled yarn is any yarn that contains fibers that were once used
for something else. Probably the first such yarn available was the recycled silk yarn, made from the end bits left over from sari production.
These days you're beginning to see more yarns made with recycled cotton or plastic content.
Recycled cotton yarn typically comes from the remnants left over
after manufacturing T-shirts, while plastic fiber is extruded from
recycled plastic bottles. You'll sometimes see this referred
to as soda
bottle yarn.Is Recycled Yarn Better?
These sorts of yarns vary in the amount of recycled content that is used
to make them, so while diverting waste from landfills is always a good
idea, these might not be the most Eco-friendly fibers out there .
As always when it comes to choosing greener yarns, there are
tradeoffs. It could well be that a 100 percent organic cotton yarn is
better for the planet than a yarn made in part with conventionally
produced but recycled fiber (cotton in particular is tricky because it
is so pesticide intensive), especially if that non-organic yarn is also conventionally dyed.
Recycling plastic is great, but it's often used in acrylic yarns, which can use a lot of petroleum products in their production.
That's
no reason to turn away from recycled yarns, but it is important to know
all the potential fiber choices that are out there and, if eco knitting
is something you're interested in, weighing your own priorities against
what's known about the production practices that went into the yarn
you're considering.