Santini and Polartec have released the Aero Race jersey, the first commercial product to use Polartec Power Dry with Recycled Carbon. The fabric is created by capturing industrial CO2 emissions and converting them into high performance polyester yarns. This new material significantly reduces the environmental impact of athletic wear. The company claims the jersey has a carbon footprint up to 66 percent lower than garments made from traditional virgin polyester.
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Interesting to see carbon capture moving into consumer apparel. The 66 percent reduction claim is a big number, but I want to see the full lifecycle analysis to know if the energy used for the conversion cancels out the gains.
The real question is the sourcing of the CO2. If they are just capturing it from a plant that is already getting subsidies for CCS, this is just a clever way to monetize a waste stream. We need to know if this creates a new incentive for actual decarbonization.
Carbon capture for textiles is a niche use case. I am curious about the scale. How many tons of CO2 are actually being sequestered into these jerseys per year? If it is just a few hundred kilos, it is a marketing win, not a climate win.
Using industrial emissions for polyester is better than drilling for more oil, but it still leaves us with synthetic fibers that shed microplastics. It solves the carbon input problem but not the end of life problem.
