In 2007, Billabong launched the Recycler Series, becoming the first company to make boardshorts with recycled P.E.T. bottles. The brand is proud to announce that starting with Spring 2019, ALL the new Billabong Boardshorts will be made from Recycled P.E.T., a major step towards a sustainable serial production method as well as a great example for many other companies.
The Billabong Philosophy is pretty simple: Make the best boardshorts and be good to the ocean, because life’s better in boardshorts.
Make the Best Boardshorts
Believe it or not the Billabong boardshorts are super soft. Even if they are made with recycled plastic, they feel very nice on the skin. Some even say more than any other boardshorts they ever wore. They’re seamless, have a great, simple fit and are super confortable. The shorts all have a sturdy Velcro pocket that’s very secure but easy to peel open so you can keep your belongings safe and ready to go.
There’s a very cool wax comb in the aforementioned pocket. Perfect for applying wax or even combing your hair. Up to you! The shorts are also incredibly light, making them some of the most comfortable boardies ever.
For those wondering how to turn plastic bottles into shorts, here's how Billabong does it. First, they collect plastic bottles on a constant base, which are then broke down into what we call pallets. The bottles are then each inspected and appropriate bottles have their caps and labels removed before being granulated. The small plastic flakes are then dried and, through a process known as polymerization, are made into a polyester fiber. Eventually, those very fine particles will be spun into yarn, which then, could be woven into fabric. In the last step, the resulted fabrics are used to put together the different parts of the boardshorts.
Be Good to the Ocean
Each year, millions of plastic bottles end up in the ocean or as landfill. Billabong, in a continued push to reduce PET waste, gives this plastic a new life by turning it into board shorts. Just one pair of these recycled board shorts saves approximately 25 PET bottles. And if that’s not enough, these limited edition board shorts have been given the style stamp of approval by some of the worlds top surfing champions like Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson and Jack Freestone.
Billabong is proud to make ecological board shorts. They are also proud to collaborate with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). Think about it, a single plastic bottle takes up to a thousands of years to breakdown, about 100 millions plastic bottles are used every day and more than 1,500 of these bottles are thrown in our oceans every second... It's good to know that someone is doing something!
60 million. That’s the number of plastic bottles to-date that Billabong globally have re-used to produce their latest line of boardies using recycled, lightweight stretch fabrics, known as the Recycler Series. The number of recycled bottles is still growing to this day.
