The False Image of Fleece as an Eco-Friendly Solution
Don’t be fooled! Fleece is awful and we need to do something about it
At Fonk we value sustainable, eco-friendly solutions to problems that matter. We love it when tiny solutions have a big impact. We also love it when our Fonky colleagues have side projects they are passionate about. That’s why we’re putting the side project of our colleague in the spotlight. This side project involved packing a building in fleece. Why? Because fleece sucks.
Why Fleece Sucks
Fleece is ruining our drinking water, creating toxic fumes, damaging eco-systems and turning the ocean into a plastic soup. Did you know this about fleece? I didn’t and neither did many of my colleagues when our creative development intern, Daan Rongen gave a presentation on his side project thats goal is to combat the problems that fleece has created.
But let’s be honest. Fleece itself hasn’t created these problems, it’s the uninformed masses that have. The issue with fleece is a strange one. It has the image of an eco-friendly material even though it’s really the opposite. In 1983 fleece was produced as a solution to pollution caused by the overuse and production of plastic bottles.
You see, fleece is made from recycled plastic. Or at least it used to be. Fleece became popular when it was presented as this eco-solution and because of this, gained traction among the hippie community. Its popularity increased as outdoorsy folks adopted the material due to it being a cheaper and better alternative to wool. It’s light weight, warm and it dries quickly. At one point fleece became fashionable and at this point the demand is higher than the amount of recycled plastic that is necessary to meet this demand.
And this is really bad, because big retail corporations are now producing fleece with non-renewable fossil fuels which is making the problem even bigger.
So what is the biggest problem with fleece? Its mere existence is one of the largest causes of the pollution of our oceans. The 60% of fleece that does not end up in garbage dumps where it creates toxic fumes, is in our homes and getting washed in the laundry, each time releasing 1 million pieces of microplastic into the sewer. These pieces of microplastic end up in our drinking water, in the ocean and inside of the fish we eat for dinner.
34.8% of all of the microplastic, polluting our water comes just from the washing of fleece. This is crazy! The craziest part is that most people have NO IDEA.
What is being done about this?
Well our government is doing nothing (surprise, surprise). Also big retail corporations continue to produce fleece, whether from recycled plastic bottles or (even worse) non-renewable fossil fuels.
So it really becomes the job of the consumer to stop buying fleece so that there is no longer demand and the production stops. Also people need to stop washing the fleece they own. But how can the consumer take action against a problem they are unaware of?
That’s where our creative development intern, Daan’s work comes in. He is working on a project initiated by Conny Groenewegen, fashion designer, artist and activist, thats goal is to solve the fleece epidemic. This is an ambitious goal that they hope to achieve in three phases:
Phase 1: Raising awareness about how fleece is a fake eco-solution
This phase involves an epic installation at the creative hub Mediamatic in Amsterdam. Conny and a huge team of volunteers collected 2,000 kilograms of locally discarded fleece (about 6,000 sweaters) and wrapped the Mediamatic building in knitted fleece.
This beautiful display of craftiness and teamwork resulted in an eye catching artwork that can be spotted from quite a distance. Through media coverage and the inquiries of vistors and passersby, the false image of fleece as an eco-friendly solution is slowly but surely being rectified. The fleece is currently still hanging at Mediamatic as phase 1 of this project is still in progress (go check it out!!! The fleece will be hanging until October 8th). This phase will end on November 2nd with an evening of lectures by artists, designers and scientists who are all experts on the subject of fleece. This will include presentations on possible solutions for how to safely discard fleece.
Phase 2: Activating people to spread the word and help towards solving this global problem
Phase 2 will involve another installation with a digital aspect (which is where Daan hopes to get some of our technical Fonkys involved!). This phase is still in conceptualisation stage, but the goal is to encourage people to stop buying fleece and to bring in the fleece that they currently own so that is can be disposed of in an eco-friendly manner. Which is where phase 3 of this project comes in!
Phase 3: Disposing of fleece in an eco-friendly manner
How this can be done is currently being researched by Maurizio Montalti of Officina Corpuscoli who is specialised in fungi that can decompose synthetic and toxic materials. This has the potential to be a truly eco-friendly solution to the fleece problem instead of a temporary solution that just moves the problem to a different arena (like the recycling of plastic bottles into fleece). Watch the video about how fungi can decompose plastic:
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