PDP goes eco
By now you are probably familiar with the fact that the fashion industry is one of the major polluters on this planet. The production of garments contributes to different forms of environmental pollution, including water, air and soil pollution. The textile industry is the greatest polluter of local freshwater in the world. The main factors that contribute to this pollution are overproduction, the use of synthetic fibers, and the agriculture pollution of fashion crops, with cotton being the absolute dirtiest crop in the world.
As outdoor adventurers this confronts us with a dilemma because it’s quite clear that a great deal of the gear we are using is made from non-sustainable synthetic fibers. For example, when our polyester sweat-wicking clothing is washed micro plastics are entering the water system which is leading to micro pollution in water ways and oceans where the fish absorb them in their body fat.
With a growing emphasis on environmental awareness, some outdoor companies are decreasing their impact on nature by using quality materials that are sustainable. Brands like Patagonia, Vaude, Fjall Räven have been leading the way for years. It’s fair to say the cycling fashion industry has been limping behind. Danny Shane has been producing their jerseys out of bamboo for some years, while Pillar Heights has been producing jerseys out of a hemp fabric and OORR has been using recycled materials throughout their entire collection.
Now Peloton De Paris, a family-run Belgium-based company just released their new Recon-line, taking the company one step further on a more sustainable path. The range is made from recycled materials and has been designed to be performance oriented, being manufactured by the Italian fabric engineers at M.I.T.I. and Effepi. This collection was two years in the making. When Peloton De Paris started to work on the idea to make a eco-friendly line in 2018, recycled performance orientated yarns were hard to come by. They also had to make sure that fibers for the clothing, especially the bib shorts could withstand intensive use and they were simply not available when they started working on the idea. That all changed when suppliers saw the light in 2019 and started producing what they were looking for.
The sustainable recycled fibers used by M.I.T.I. for their Green Soul Technology include post-consumer polyester yarns, pre-consumer sustainable nylon recycled from industrial wastage and pre-consumer sustainable premium elastane recycled from industrial wastage. In Effepi’s recycling process PET-bottles end up as polyester yarns. Production of these fibers and yarns is off-course a labor-intensive process witch results in prices being a bit higher than those of virgin fibers. Sustainable products come with a certain price tag, but we at Wildhood strongly believe they come with good karma and positive vibes too.
Peloton De Paris also incorporated other sustainable engagements in their business model. They say their business model “does not rely on discount after discount ”, so they try to keep dead stock to the lowest level possible and prefer to repair faulty garments instead of automatically sending people new ones.
Most dust bags used in the cycling fashion industry to protect garments are single-use wrappings that are typically made from plastic. That’s why Peloton De Paris started looking for a non-plastic alternative that they found in plant based bags made from the cassava-root. These bags (which are shipped by sea) dissolve in boiling water, or decay after 180 days when you compost them, leaving no harmful residue.
They are using 100% recycled paper in their packaging and shipping materials. From sock labels to flyers, from shopping bags to shipping boxes, all are made from recycled paper. The paper used has been re-made from used paper (post-consumer waste) that has been re-purposed at a recycling facility. This ‘closing-the-loop’ process saves 40% in greenhouse gas emissions, 50% in wastewater, it uses 30% less net energy and of course it saves trees.
Peloton De Paris makes 98% of their products in Europe, in countries like Italy, Romania, the Netherlands and Portugal. The remaining 2% is produced in Tunisia and China. Future goals are to have everything produced in the EU within the next 2 years and have all their products made according to OEKO-TEX® and Bluesign® international standards. Which translates to having good labor conditions in the producing factories using sustainably produced textiles in their garments. How fast the people behind Peloton De Paris will realize these goals will be dependent on one hand from how fast producers of performance textiles will adapt to a growing market and on the other hand on what their own research into sustainable and eco -raw materials will lead them to.
It’s refreshing to see smaller company’s leading the way towards a more sustainable cycling fashion industry and we ‘d like to encourage our fellow adventurers to support these initiatives and be more conscious about what we spend our hard-earned cash on.
Words: Philippe Michiels
Photo credits: Peloton De Paris