Recycled Materials in Outdoor Gear, Explained
Here’s what to know about recycled materials, brand transparency and third-party certifications, recycled vs. recyclable products, and more
Apr 18, 2025
Table of contents
First, let’s define what we’re going to be discussing in this article. The word “recycled” is a bit of a misnomer, given that most recycled materials are made from pre- and post-consumer waste products derived from non-outdoor industry sources, which are known as feedstock—think fishing nets, carpeting, and plastic water bottles. Textile-to-textile recycling (i.e. recycling one pair of hiking pants into the fabric for a new pair of hiking pants, and what most people think of when they see the word “recycled”) is much less common. That’s because textiles are often made with blended materials that are much more difficult to recycle than single-polymer materials such as the plastic used for water bottles.
Pre- and post-consumer feedstock materials are processed using mechanical or chemical recycling. When a material is mechanically recycled, it’s shredded and melted into usable material without altering its chemical structure. Chemical recycling, on the other hand, involves breaking a feedstock material down into its component molecules to make a whole new material. Mechanical recycling can only be repeated a finite number of times before a fiber loses its integrity. However, it’s much less expensive than chemical recycling and, thus, more common in the outdoor industry. Chemical processing preserves the fiber's integrity indefinitely, but it’s more expensive and requires more energy than mechanical recycling.
In short, recycled materials are made from waste that is broken down into its constituent parts and made into a new material. In contrast, repurposed materials (also known as deadstock) are materials left over in the manufacturing process. While not recycled, outdoor companies like Cotopaxi also use repurposed materials to limit textile waste.
Recycled polyester is the most commonly used recycled synthetic fabric in outdoor gear and apparel. While virgin polyester is derived from petroleum, recycled polyester is usually made by mechanically recycling plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), though it can also be made from industrial plastic waste and single-polymer polyester textiles. PET is the same polymer used to make virgin polyester, which makes recycling bottles into polyester a seamless process that produces a high-quality fabric that’s nearly identical in chemical composition to its virgin counterpart. While plastic bottles are the most common feedstock for recycled polyester, some companies are searching for alternative sources. Patagonia, for example, is working on recycling school cafeteria trays into polyester fabric.
Where You’ll Find It: Recycled polyester is found anywhere that traditional polyester is used across the outdoor gear market. That encompasses an enormous array of gear, including softshell jackets, board shorts, fleeces, backpacks, sleeping bags, synthetic insulation, and more. Over the last decade or so brands have increasingly opted to use recycled polyester in place of its virgin counterpart. For example, Patagonia's R1 Air Full-Zip Hoody is made with 100% recycled polyester. According to Patagonia, recycled polyester "is now similarly priced to its virgin counterparts" making it a popular recycled fabric choice for many outdoor companies.
Why Use Recycled Polyester: Because polyester is widely used in outdoor gear and apparel, replacing virgin polyester with its recycled counterpart can significantly impact the outdoor industry’s demand for fossil fuels. Patagonia found that swapping virgin polyester for mechanically recycled polyester decreased carbon emissions associated with producing the fabric by 50%, while chemically recycled polyester yielded an 18% reduction in carbon emissions. Many other outdoor brands use recycled polyester to help meet their emissions reduction goals. In addition to emissions savings, recycling post-consumer polyester can turn single-use products into high-quality materials that can take on a new life in, say, a T-shirt or a pair of board shorts.
Recycled nylon is another common synthetic fabric utilized in many of the same outdoor gear products as polyester. Virgin nylon, like virgin polyester, is synthesized from petroleum, meaning that producing the fabric relies on fossil fuel extraction. Recycled nylon, however, can be made from a much wider variety of feedstocks than recycled polyester. These pre- and post-consumer feedstocks include everything from scrap fabric and fishing nets to carpeting and industrial plastic.
Where You’ll Find It: Recycled nylon and recycled polyester have a lot of crossover. The former is often found in ski jackets, ski pants, rain jackets, and down jackets, while the latter is more common in T-shirts and fleece jackets. For example, Norrona’s Lofoten ski jackets and pants feature Bluesign-approved, 100% recycled nylon face textiles. Additionally, Patagonia’s spring 2025 collection features an impressive 92% recycled content in its nylon-based fabrics.
Why Use Recycled Nylon: Unlike recycled polyester, which is often made from recyclable plastic bottles, recycled nylon feedstocks usually include materials that wouldn’t otherwise be reused, such as fishing nets and carpeting. Recycling these waste materials into fabric for a shell jacket, for example, can keep them out of the landfill and extend their usable life. Additionally, Patagonia cites that its NetPlus nylon material, which is made using a chemical recycling method, has a 19% lower carbon footprint per kilogram compared to virgin nylon.
Down is the soft, insulating layer of plumage under the protective exterior feathers of goose or duck. While virgin down is often sourced as a byproduct of poultry production, recycled down is derived from post-consumer down products, including duvets, pillows, sleeping bags, and cushions. To recycle down, companies sort and grade the down—categorizing it based on cleanliness, quality, and loft. They then sterilize it, treat it with hydrophobic chemicals, and use it to fill new products.
Where You’ll Find It: Like its virgin counterpart, recycled down is used to insulate gear such as sleeping bags, puffy jackets, booties, and more. It’s much less common than recycled polyester or nylon, but several companies, including Rab, The North Face, Jones, La Sportiva, and Patagonia have begun the material to make meaningful waste reductions. For example, Rab’s Microlight Alpine down jacket is made with 100% recycled hydrophobic down.
Why Use Recycled Down: Down has historically gone to the landfill after a single use in a duvet, pillow, sleeping bag, or jacket. Recycling down can give the material another use in outdoor products, rather than becoming waste. Rab, a major manufacturer of down jackets, stated that “in 2023 [it] saved 23,000 kilograms of down from going to landfill by using recycled down.” Patagonia also reported that using recycled down offered a 33% reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of insulation in comparison to virgin goose down.
While recycled polyester, nylon, and down are the most common recycled materials used in outdoor gear, some companies have gone above and beyond to replace other virgin materials with recycled ones. These materials include recycled wool, cotton, cashmere, spandex, and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), which are often made from post-consumer textiles.
As new recycling technologies arise, many outdoor brands are working to integrate an increasing share of recycled materials into their products. As textile-to-textile recycling becomes more common, these less commonly recycled materials will likely be used more frequently in the future.
Recycled wool, for example, made up a notable share of Patagonia’s fall 2023 line. In 2023 (the most recent year we have data from), the brand’s wool fabrics were made with 89% recycled wool by weight. By using recycled wool, Patagonia claims to have “helped keep more than 3.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.” Other brands, such as Smartwool, are experimenting with using recycled wool in select products. The company’s Second Cut socks are made with around 50% recycled wool sourced from socks sent back to Smartwool for recycling.
Not all products made with recycled materials are created equal, and some fabrics and materials offer more substantial environmental impact reductions than others. For instance, recycling soda bottles into shell jackets addresses waste and petroleum dependence, but other sustainability questions arise. Recycled polyester is usually made by melting the plastic bottles into PET, which can then be used in textiles. But using a feedstock—or input—like soda bottles can mean removing a recyclable material from a supply chain where it can be recycled multiple times into one where it cannot be since blended materials like the polyester-cotton in a T-shirt are difficult to recycle. A plastic bottle transformed into a T-shirt is likely destined for the landfill, just further down the line. This adds complexity to the recycled material production chain and urgency to create materials that are both recycled and recyclable. Brands are working toward improving the textile-to-textile recycling process, but capabilities are still limited.
Finding gear that contains recycled materials is simple on our website—look for the green check mark under the recycled materials icon to confirm whether a product uses recycled fabrics. If you want to know the exact recycled content of a product, go to the product’s sustainability report in our sustainability portal. Additionally, using BetterTrail’s “recycled materials” search function in the sustainability hub is an excellent starting point for finding eco-friendly products. You can use it to sort products with and without recycled content.
You can also use “recycled materials” search functions on several major retailer websites, including REI Co-op’s “Sustainability” dropdown filters and Backcountry’s “Responsibility” dropdown filters. Some brands, including Rab and Patagonia, also have specialized sustainability search functions on their websites, allowing you to sort by filters like “greater than 75% recycled materials” or “NetPlus recycled nylon.” These search functions provide you with improved transparency, allowing for a seamless process when you shop for gear with green cred.
As using recycled materials has become increasingly common in the outdoor industry, a handful of companies are blazing paths for others to follow. Here are some brands that boast impressive programs for integrating recycled materials into their products.
Patagonia is leading the charge on integrating recycled components into its line, with a whopping 97% of its spring 2025 products made with recycled materials. To break that down further, the spring 2025 line uses 92% recycled polyester and 92% recycled nylon by weight in. Additionally, in fall 2024 Patagonia used 190,000 pounds of recycled down in its products, reducing its carbon emissions by 33% compared to if it had used virgin down.
Patagonia and California-based organization Bureo also developed NetPlus, a program that turns discarded fishing nets into nylon. In spring 2025, over 300 metric tons of NetPlus nylon was used in Patagonia’s line (up from 200 metric tons in 2024). Finally, Patagonia uses recycled materials that nearly no other brands use, including spandex, cashmere, and TPU.
While most outdoor brands focus exclusively on replacing virgin materials with recycled ones, Nemo stands out by producing both recycled and recyclable products. Nemo’s Endless Promise Collection features sleeping bags and backpacks made with recycled materials that are “painstakingly engineered for total recyclability.” Most textiles can’t be recycled because they use blended fabrics, and Nemo engineered a line of single-polymer fabrics—it calls them “Cero”—that can be broken down and reused at the end of the product’s life. Most importantly, Nemo takes responsibility for these end-of-life products by sending them to partner organizations to be recycled into materials that can be used again. As of 2023—the most recent available data we have–-13% of Nemo products are fully recyclable.
Rab’s impressive commitment to product transparency is best showcased by its Material Facts program, which gives every Rab product from its fall/winter 2024 line onwards a label that breaks down the gear’s recycled content. This step toward transparency provides consumers with another tool for understanding the products’ environmental impact. Rab also pioneered a down recycling program in the United Kingdom in 2021 that collects and recycles down jackets, sleeping bags, pillows, and duvets into jacket and sleeping bag fillings. As of 2024—the most recent year that Rab has released public data—over 1,000 pounds of down products have been collected. For extra assurance, all of Rab’s recycled down is certified to the Global Recycled Standard.
By using around 85% recycled polyester across its products in 2023 and 86% recycled nylon in 2021 (which is, unfortunately, is the most recent year this data was published), Norrona has made impressive progress in its transition to recycled materials. The company’s recycled polyester is sourced from plastic soda bottles, while its recycled nylon is made from “post-consumer chemically-recycled sources such as fishing nets, carpet, and some textiles.” Since 2020, all of Norrona Econyl backpacks have been made with 100% recycled fabric. Additionally, all of Norrona’s Gore-Tex products in the Lofoten ski collection are made with 100% recycled nylon face textiles.
In fall 2023, the last year this data was published, The North Face used more than 85% recycled polyester fabric and 75% recycled nylon fabric in its products, making the company a leader in the use of recycled synthetic materials. The brand has also integrated recycled down into several products in its 2024 product line. Similar to Nemo, The North Face has started a limited Circular Design program, through which many products are made with recycled materials, with the intent to be recyclable upon return to The North Face. As of spring 2025, the program is small and primarily consists of casual clothing.
In 2020, Cotopaxi began its “3 R’s” program to limit the environmental impact of production. This program focuses on manufacturing products using either recycled, repurposed, or responsible materials. As of 2023, the last year data was published, 100% of Cotopaxi’s products were made with either recycled materials, repurposed deadstock—also known as leftover fabrics—or certified “responsible” materials. These responsible materials include Bluesign-approved, Fair Trade Certified, and other third-party certified materials. Its deadstock reuse program is a particularly unique way of meeting its sustainability standards by giving purpose to fabrics that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. According to Cotopaxi’s 2023 impact report, 1,000,661 items manufactured by Cotopaxi were made with repurposed deadstock materials, and 784,161 were made with recycled materials.
While an increasing share of outdoor gear is made with recycled materials, some products are a cut above the rest in terms of their unique and extensive use of recycled fabrics and fills. Here are four standouts.
Nemo Resolve 15L Endless Promise Technical Active Daypack: This pack is made with a fully recycled—and recyclable—Cero PET (polyethylene terephthalate) fabric. The Resolve is also cushioned with Nemo’s proprietary CCubed foam, which is both recycled and recyclable as well. Nemo designed this pack to be returned for “total recycling” at the end of its life. Because blended materials typically cannot be recycled, Nemo constructed the Resolve with mono-polymer materials, meaning only one molecule type is used in each piece of fabric.
Rab Microlight Alpine Down Jacket: The Microlight Alpine Down Jacket is a lightweight puffy that’s made with an impressive profile of recycled materials. Rather than settling for using only a recycled shell material or a recycled fill, Rab went above and beyond by using both in this down jacket. In total, the Microlight Alpine features 90% recycled content. Its shell fabric is recycled 30-denier Nylon Pertex Quantum, and the jacket is filled with recycled 700-fill power down with a Nikwax hydrophobic finish.
Patagonia Granite Crest Rain Jacket: The 3-layer Granite Crest is constructed with 100% post-consumer recycled nylon ripstop material. The Bureo NetPlus nylon used in this jacket is derived from recycled fishing nets, the result of a program that helps reduce ocean pollution and its harm to marine animals. (According to Patagonia, “Scientists estimate more than 650,000 marine animals are killed or seriously injured every year after being trapped in fishing gear.”) By transforming nets into nylon, materials that would have otherwise been sent to the landfill after clean-up are turned into rain jackets like the Granite Crest as well as a variety of other Patagonia products. Similar to NetPlus, Patagonia also uses OceanCycle-certified recycled polyester fabrics in several of its products. OceanCycle fabrics are derived from plastic bottles reclaimed from ocean pollution.
Cotopaxi Abrazo Fleece: These fleece jackets and pants from Cotopaxi are made with 100% recycled polyester fleece. Recycled materials now make up a large portion of Cotopaxi’s total fabrics overall. For more eco-friendly gear, check out Cotopaxi’s Del Dia line for backpacks and fanny packs made with 100% deadstock materials that would have otherwise been thrown away.
We know that recycled fabric is used in various outdoor gear—but how do you parse through company claims about their products’ recycled content? We prefer that brands disclose the exact recycled content of their materials rather than make general statements like “made with recycled materials,” since a vague statement like this one can mean that a product contains just 1% recycled content. On most brands’ websites, recycled content specifications are buried beneath dropdown menus with titles like “Specifications” or “Materials.” Use the recycled materials section on our product sustainability reports to find this information seamlessly.
Some outdoor gear brands use third-party certifications to ensure that their recycled materials meet a minimum percentage of recycled content. One such entity is the Textile Exchange, a nonprofit body that certifies recycled materials to its standards to assure transparency to outdoor gear consumers. It houses the Recycled Claims Standard (RCS) and Global Recycled Standard (GRS) for recycled fabrics. Both standards police the amount of recycled content in a recycled fiber. The RCS is less rigorous at 5% recycled content, while the GRS requires a 50% minimum required recycled content and additional social and environmental benchmarks.
For both certifications, pre- and post-consumer recycled feedstocks are allowed. Auditors also check the chain of custody at every point (the Content Claim Standard) in the production process to establish that the recycled standards, and, for the GRS, social standards are met along the way. Notably, these standards are for the textiles themselves. A jacket, for example, could be made with GRS-certified polyester, but the piece’s zippers and waterproof coating and insulation might not be. It’s up to the retailer to properly disclose that information. To guarantee accountability, RCS and GRS claims require an annual audit, or “scope certificate,” which verifies that every step in the production process continues to meet requirements.
The Textile Exchange also launched the 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge to encourage the textile industry to use 45% recycled polyester by 2025. Under this challenge, companies including Norrona and Prana, have committed to using 100% recycled polyester in their products by 2025. Unfortunately, according to the most recent available data, only 11% of participating brands have reached their target so far.
As an increasing number of recycled products make it to the market, there has been a growing impetus for companies to do more and embrace circularity by offering both recycled and recyclable products. This can lead to confusion over recycled versus recyclable materials. Here’s how they differ: Recycled materials are made by turning pre- or post-consumer waste into new materials through chemical or mechanical recycling. Recyclable materials, on the other hand, can be broken down at the end of life into usable parts—that is, these materials can be used again if properly disposed of at the end of life.
A major limitation of recycling textiles is that most blended fabrics—such as a nylon/spandex blend—cannot easily be recycled. A handful of companies in the outdoor industry are working to make recycled and recyclable products more readily available to consumers. For example, several products in Nemo’s Endless Promise collection are made from recycled materials that are also fully recyclable. This is possible due to Nemo’s innovation of single-molecule materials that can be broken down at the end of life. Most brands, however, make recycled or recyclable gear. When searching for new gear, ensure you know if the product you are considering is recycled, recyclable, or both.
If you need new gear, purchasing products made with recycled materials rather than virgin ones is generally a more sustainable choice. Because petroleum is the feedstock for so many common synthetic materials—think polyester, nylon, and spandex—using recycled materials decreases reliance on fossil fuels. Other recycled materials, such as down and wool, are also less carbon intensive than their virgin counterparts. Designing outdoor gear with recycled materials can also divert waste from landfills, allowing otherwise useless materials to take on a new life. Luckily for you—and the earth—more and more outdoor brands are increasing the share of recycled content in their products, making finding great gear with a lower environmental impact easier than ever.
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