What is polyester?
Polyester is a synthetic man-made fabric made from plastic. From sportswear to lingerie, it is one of the world's most popular fabric because of its versatile properties and low production cost.
But producing polyester requires coal, air, water and petroleum as raw materials, consuming valuable natural resources whilst supporting the world’s largest pollutant - the oil manufacturing industry. Polyester is also not biodegradable. The average polyester product can take 20 to 200 years to decompose1. On top of that, the dyeing process of it often involves toxic chemicals that are harmful to workers whilst making waste water very difficult to treat.
Is Cafuné using polyester?
Instead of sourcing virgin polyester, Cafuné is committed to only using recycled polyester that make use of existing plastic in the world.
Starting from Spring/Summer 2021, we have phased out cotton as a lining fabric and replaced it with recycled polyester. Our new lining is made of 50% REPREVE - a world leader in producing recycled fibre.
Whilst we endeavoured to use 100% recycled polyester, at this moment it is technically unviable. We will continue to explore other recycled fibre options from suppliers who can provide 100% recycled materials with good performance and durability. 
What is recycled polyester made from?
Recycled polyester is a recycled fibre made from PET bottles, industrial polyester waste and polyester garments. Performance and durability of recycled polyester is the same as virgin polyester, but with a much lower environmental impact.
First and foremost, recycled polyester reduces the amount of waste, preventing plastic from going to landfill or into our oceans. It also decreases chemical and greenhouse gas emissions, since recycled polyester takes less energy to produce than virgin polyester. Overall, it reduces our reliance on the fossil fuel industry.
And it is a never ending process - recycling can be repeated indefinitely, directly diminishes the environmental impact from garment waste.