US shoe company Rothy’s has launched handbags that it claims are made from 100 per cent recycled materials. The series is the first bag collection by Rothy’s , which is known for creating knitted women’s footwear made from recycled plastic water bottles. The handbags use Rothy’s usual threading and a new fibre made from post-consumer plastics the brand said are sourced "within 30 miles of coastlines and marine environments". Company co-founder Roth Martin said that it is the first recycled plastic handbag collection of its kind to use ocean-bound plastics. To create the recycled plastic material, the plastics are collected from beaches and waterways, broken into chips, melted into pellets, stretched into fibres and then treated with air into yarn. The thread is then combined with Rothy’s recycled polyester (rPET) thread to ensure the handbags are durable. The combination of materials means the bags are made "from 100 per cent recycled materials", aside from the metal zippers and hooks. "From a materials standpoint, ocean-bound marine plastics are less stable than our signature rPET thread," Martin said. "These plastics are degraded by sun, salt and sand." "By blending them with the rPET thread and using our knitting process, we create […]
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