Kathmandu has teamed up with Unifi who have been making a polyester made from recycled plastic bottles since 1994. This textile is called Repreve and utilises plastic bottles instead of fossil fuels. In their latest collection, Kathmandu has added in an array of backpacks made from Repreve. Around 17 bottles go into making each backpack and 15 bottles going into each fleece jacket. Six bottles are used into every t-shirt. The company is giving millions of plastic bottles a second life. "All recycled fibres are not alike. Repreve uses a standard that means we can trace the material to make sure it comes from post-consumer waste," Kathmandu's material manager Manu Rastogi said in Kathmandu’s 2018 Sustainability Report. "Repreve makes it easy for us to keep track of how many bottles we are recycling in our ranges, which also helps us to keep improving."
In 2018, Kathmandu recycled 6.7 million bottles alone and aims to bump this up to 7.5 million in 2019. Leading the brand to be ranked second globally three years in a row in the outdoor and sports category for the Textile Exchange Preferred Fibres and Materials report.
