Across all industries, green products have become more prevalent over the past few years, at times more popular than alternatives with a lower price tag. Many businesses today care about their environmental impact and want their customers to do their part to help the planet. This includes using sustainable materials made from recyclables.

Did you know plastic bottles can be turned into printable textiles, used for advertising displays such as lightboxes and products like bean bags and parasols? It’s green products like these that can improve your company's branding and lessen your impact on the environment. Today, we’re highlighting four facts you should know about sustainable printed fabrics and their applications in the commercial world.

Fact 1: Sustainable fabrics are made from recycled plastic bottles

Nowadays, we all know how plastics take up space in landfills and can act as pollutants to our environment. Meanwhile, manufacturing new fabrics is a process that consumes a great deal of energy and resources. The good news is that some plastics, including those used to manufacture disposable water and beverage bottles, can be recycled into new materials! The plastics are broken down into a base form and then spun into recycled fabric. Yarn made from plastic bottles can be used to weave an eco-friendly textile that suits a variety of business and commercial applications, including company marketing displays. This process saves energy and creates a new life for items that would otherwise be rubbish.

Fact 2: Green products encourage recycling

In 2018, Australians only recycled 9.8% of the plastics used. While this has since improved, our nation continues to waste what could be a valuable resource, instead allowing our landfills to pile up and engaging in environmentally damaging practices such as burying or burning waste.

Historically, part of the problem has been due to a lack of uses for recycled materials in Australia. By creating a market for sustainable fabric made from recycled plastic bottles, more consumers now want to buy it. This has driven the need for better manufacturing processes and more efficient recycling systems – making it easier for people to do the right thing and recycle their plastics. Rather than dumping plastics or selling them to other countries, repurposing our plastic will help protect Australia and the planet.

Fact 3: Sustainable materials have the same quality to traditional products

In the past, a common concern among businesses and consumers was that eco-friendly products were lower quality than their traditional alternatives. Nowadays, however, many high-quality recycled materials are on the market with the same (or better) features as their counterparts. For example, Ricky Richards offers green print media textiles such as be.tex Green Samba FR, a sustainable textile made from recycled plastic bottles with the exact same quality as the be.tex Samba FR. Both of these fabrics are woven polyester textiles with the following identical benefits:

Airtight
Watertight
Fire-retardant
Crease-resistant
Non-fraying

Printable polyester textiles

Fact 4: Recycled fabric has a variety of business uses

Sustainable fabric made from recycled plastic bottles has many uses in different business applications. Here are some of our favourites:

Printable polyester textiles

Printable polyester textiles are ideal for creating backlit displays. This eco-friendly fabric can easily be transformed into vibrant, colourful signs and advertisements that welcome customers into your business.  The same recycled fabric is perfect for display stands, banners and promotional materials to use at exhibitions and events.

Printable self-adhesive vinyl

Printable self-adhesive vinyl made from recycled plastic is the perfect sustainable material for external signs, decals, murals and commercial wall coverings. Vinyl is fire-resistant and breathable, and has a low VOC output while being durable, presenting a good alternative to its non-sustainable counterparts. Whatever way you use sustainable printable fabrics in your business, it’s good to know you are ticking two boxes: doing your bit for the planet and showing your customers you care about a more sustainable future.

A final word about sustainable fabrics

If you want to help eliminate rubbish, reduce energy use, encourage recycling and look incredible in front of your customers, choose sustainable print media and recycled fabrics for your business marketing and interior displays.

And don’t forget, you can choose sustainable fabrics for use at home too, with tablecloths, shower curtains and bean bags.

Ricky Richards is a leading sustainable fabric supplier in Australia. For information about sustainable materials and printed fabric options, contact our friendly team today.

Architecture & Design Team

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