Not necessarily. Testing across 51 garments from major outdoor and sportswear brands found that recycled polyester sheds around 55% more microplastic fibres than virgin polyester - and the fibres it sheds are finer, meaning they travel further, stay airborne longer, and are more easily inhaled. Recycling changes where the plastic comes from. It doesn't change the fact that it's plastic, or that plastic sheds.
Part of our series on plastic in outdoor wear - start with 'Why Outdoor Wear Shouldn't Be Made of Plastic'.
What is recycled polyester, exactly?
Recycled polyester (often labelled rPET) is usually made by melting down plastic bottles or existing polyester waste and re-spinning it into new fibre. It's marketed as the responsible version of polyester - less oil extracted, less waste in landfill. Both of those things can be true and it can still shed as much, or more, microplastic than the virgin material it replaced. Recycling addresses the front end of polyester's lifecycle. It does nothing to change what happens every time the garment is washed or worn.
Does recycled polyester still shed microplastic?
Yes - and the data suggests it may shed more, not less. A 2024 investigation by the Changing Markets Foundation, working with the Microplastic Research Group at Çukurova University, tested 47 recycled and virgin polyester garments from major sportswear and outdoor brands under standardised wash conditions. Recycled polyester garments released an average of around 12,000 microfibres per gram, compared with roughly 8,028 for virgin polyester - a difference of about 55%.
Why would recycled polyester shed more than virgin polyester?
The mechanical recycling process that turns bottles and waste plastic back into fibre puts the polymer through additional heat and stress cycles. This tends to shorten and weaken the polymer chains, producing a fibre that's structurally more fragile than one spun from virgin plastic. A more fragile fibre breaks down faster - both in the wash and through ordinary wear - releasing more fragments, and finer ones, per gram of fabric.
Is this settled science?
It's an active and contested area, and worth stating plainly. The Microfibre Consortium, an industry body (formed by the large outdoor brands) that runs its own standardised shedding tests, has published findings that don't show a consistent recycled-vs-virgin gap, and some brands using recycled polyester dispute the Changing Markets findings. What isn't contested is the baseline problem: all polyester, recycled or not, sheds plastic microfibres, and a single gram of synthetic fabric can release millions of them. Recycling has never been shown to eliminate the shedding problem - only to relocate the source material.
So what's the alternative?
Choosing a fibre that was never plastic in the first place. Merino wool sheds no microplastic because there's no plastic to shed - it's a natural, biodegradable protein fibre. PureFleece® is 100% Merino Lambswool, woven (not knitted) at one of the world's finest mills, in Yorkshire, with the garments made in Britain, with no polyester anywhere - not the fabric, not the thread, not the zips. It's not a recycled version of the problem. It's a different material entirely, proven to perform better in outdoor use.
Related reading: Why Outdoor Wear Shouldn't Be Made of Plastic · Do You Breathe In Microplastics From Your Own Fleece? · Merino Wool vs Synthetic Fleece: What's Actually Warmer?
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Sources: Changing Markets Foundation, "Microfibre Pollution in Recycled vs Virgin Polyester" (2024), in partnership with the Microplastic Research Group, Çukurova University. Contested by findings from The Microfibre Consortium — presented here alongside the primary study for balance.