Ahead of his response to the motion of thanks in the president’s speech in Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made a style statement on sustainable fashion in his blue jacket, made by Indian Oil from recycled plastic bottles. .
Under its Green Sustainable Garment Initiative, Indian Oil makes garments from recycled PET bottles. The company’s flagship uniform brand for its employees, ‘Unbottled’, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during India Energy Week on Monday.
As part of manufacturing environmentally friendly uniforms and its goal to become carbon neutral by 2046, the company has pledged to recycle Rs 10 crore of PET bottles. The company also announced that it will recycle up to 100 million discarded mineral water bottles, cold drinks and other PET bottles annually to make eco-friendly uniforms for staff, PTI reported.
The company will recycle discarded PET plastic bottles to make Uniforms for Retail Customer Attendants and LPG delivery personnel. Each set of uniforms made by the company for its employee will help recycle around 28 PET bottles, the company claims.
How will ‘Unbottled’ help in polyester recycling?
In addition to recycling PET bottles into employee uniforms, the company plans to recycle polyester through its ‘Unbottled’ sustainable clothing brand. Under this initiative, the company will manufacture uniforms for the assistants of clients of other Oil Trading Companies (OMC), non-combat uniforms for the Army, uniforms/garments for Institutions and sales to retail clients.
Journey to transform the PET bottle into a garment
For the utilization of PET bottles and other plastic materials for making cloth, all the discarded bottles are washed, dried and crushed into small pieces. Small uniformly shaped plastic chips are heated and passed through a spinneret to be converted into polyester staple fiber. This fiber made from waste plastic gets its fluffy, fleecy texture in a pressing machine. Later, the polyester staple fiber is spun to produce yarn that is then woven or woven into polyester fabric.
The integrated oil company has launched initiatives such as sustainable clothing, solar cooking, etc. to achieve the goal of environmental protection by reducing the carbon footprint.
PET recycling will help the company to reduce the import burden of fossil raw material. Recycling PET requires around 59% less energy for production compared to virgin PET (manufactured from fossil sources) and has a 79% lower carbon footprint.