I started a business selling swim trunks made from recycled plastic bottles | Hacker News Reader

I started a business selling swim trunks made from recycled plastic bottles

starterstory.com

59 pointspatwalls19 comments

Just like how the fastest function is the function that is never executed, the most environmentally friendly discretionary purchase is the product never bought.

Or never needed in the first place.

Their front page seems weirdly aggro towards two of their largest potential markets, eco-minded people and surfers.

>We're not the first to do so but we felt that all the brands out there tended to cater to tree-huggers and surfer bros. We wanted to make something different...

Cool. I'll just stick to the brands that cater to me, a simple one dimensional surfer bro then.

Everyone has these by the way.

https://www.vissla.com/shop/eco-lastics/

https://www.volcom.com/products/deadly-stones-20

https://www.quiksilver.com/repreve-boardshorts-collection/

Billabong is claiming all their new boardshorts are recycled: https://www.billabong.com/mens-boardshorts/.

FWIW, there are yarn companies in the US that do recycled plastic yarns. http://www.patrickyarns.com/green-recycled/earthspun/ does it, they've been sold via companies like PuraKai for shirts.

This said, I'm not sure if this is a good idea in the first place if it just leaches out microplastics per Tharkun's comment.

If they wanted to be more open, Junk in your Trunks could consider showing their full supply chain, similar to what services like https://www.sourcemap.com do.

This was actually the first thing that came to mind. I thought a lot of the microplastics came from these kinds of recycled plastic fabrics

Do their products leach microplastics into the environment when washed?

Why shouldn’t they? All synthetic materials do this.

Edit: that’s the reason I go to the gym with worn-out cotton clothing with advertising instead of buying trendy training t-shirt from some big brand.

My first thought as well. Plastic bottles are quite hard and almost unbreakable (and when they break, the pieces aren't micro); in contrast, clothing fibres made of plastic bend a lot, presumably break a lot and are very micro...

The larger plastic pieces turn to micro over time.

"Secondary plastics are small pieces of plastic derived from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, both at sea and on land. Over time, a culmination of physical, biological, and chemphotodegradation, including photodegradation caused by sunlight exposure, can reduce the structural integrity of plastic debris to a size that is eventually undetectable to the naked eye"[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics

tldr: They worked with an Alibaba manufacturer that already made recycled shorts, and a designer to make their design. The rest is branding.

Thank you.

I do wonder what a small business process and product would look like if it was (a) made closer to the source of bottles, ie not offshore, and (b) not a garment but something else useful.

The garment industry is highly unscalable and labor intensive so it's probably out of the question for a first world startup. But maybe some other household article, like sandals or furniture.

The scalability issue may soon have some help, certainly not for all garments but for some. [0] Thought bath towels and t-shirts are progress, it will take quite some work to generalize to a wider range of items.

[0] https://www.fastcompany.com/40454692/this-t-shirt-sewing-rob...

I'm learning how to make 3d printed robots with useful printed gears etc. My hope is that in the future I can use recycled materials. The PETG I print with is the PET most bottles are made out of, plus the addition of glycol which I believe makes it tougher.

However making PETG from PET bottles, assuming it is even possible, does not seem like the best way to reuse plastics. I have wondered if you could make building wall panels by dumping a bunch of used plastic bottles in a press and using heat and pressure to fuse them together without ever chopping them or doing any chemical reprocessing. I've also seen a company that sells a machine to reprocess used plastic bottles in to plastic bricks. Using old plastic as a building material sounds really interesting to me.

Something like that is possible with plastic milk jugs. Just apply heat and you end up with something like taffy that can be molded. Maybe wall panels (with some filler like sawdust?) are feasible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdKmq7Kjt0I

Milk jugs are usually HDPE, which is much more easily recyclable.

This is how the majority of US clothing brands operate, I don't think this is necessarily problematic.

Local manufacturing is definitely preferable, but following the industry standard isn't really a knock against a small player.

...but will the trunks be recycled?

If not, then it is just delaying the inevitable.

For people that treat themselves like trash? I don't get it.

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