The firm’s hi-vis workwear range has been named recycled product of the year at a national awards ceremony.
The ‘Responsible Hi-Vis’ line was handed the title at the 2023 Materials Recycling World (MRW) National Recycling Awards, which recognised the sustainability of the product.
The line has been designed by safety products and services company Arco in partnership with polyester recycling company Stuff4Life.
Jim Harbidge, Head of Sustainability at Arco said: “This award confirms our view of a future where the value of textiles is preserved through the process we have developed.
“As we and our customers begin to move away from thinking about these items as ‘disposable’, we have been able to incorporate other aspects of design to offer comfort, durability, recycling ease and of course lower life-time costs.
“Our aim is to make the most sustainable items – also the lowest cost choice. Our new range is already available to customers who are working with arco on their journey to circularity.”
John Twitchen, Co-Founder of Stuff4Life, said: “This award is the result of all the hard work and commitment Arco has made in developing these exceptionally well-designed products.
“Nearly 90 per cent of the 33 million workwear items provided to workers annually currently end up in landfill or are incinerated but this workwear range is fit for the future, a future where materials have multiple usages and longer lifecycles.
“We’re pleased to have played a role in challenging conventions and championing change, and of course we look forward to recycling these fantastic products back into new stuff when they have served their purpose.”
The new range of hi-vis clothes are designed to last longer, made from certified recycled and responsibly sourced materials.
They are developed with end of life in mind, focusing on the recyclability of materials. Once a garment comes to the end of its life, it can be recycled using Stuff4Life’s patent-pending chemical recycling solution.
The recovered materials from the recycling process then become raw materials that can be transformed back into new polyester yarn for garment production over and over again.
