Chesterfield school uniform made from recycled plastic helps save the planet

Students at Outwood Academy in Newbold wear blazers which are provided by Trutex, made using fabric that has been manufactured from recycled drinks bottles.

Katy Bradford, chief operating officer at Outwood, said: “We are passionate about doing our bit for the environment and sustainability. We are delighted that working with Trutex, we have managed to save nearly 600,000 plastic bottles from ending up in landfill.

“Our vision is students first, and this goes beyond the classroom for us. Our students of today are the adults of tomorrow and it’s our duty to ensure we do all we can to make sure the world they inherit is a healthy one.”

Each Trutex blazer saves around 36 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill site. The numbers have been calculated from the blazers ordered from Trutex from January up until October last year, from across all of the 30 academies belonging to the Outwood Grange Academies Trust. The trust provides every child who joins the school with a free set of uniform, including their blazer.

To make a yarn suitable for use in high quality Trutex blazers, the plastic bottles are put in together in a bale which is then broken down into flake. The flake then goes through de-polymerisation and re-polymerisation process to make recycled chips which are melted and extruded to make yarn. The yarn is then woven into the high quality fabric that is used to make the Outwood blazer.

Matthew Easter, CEO at Trutex, said: “Outwood is a long-term and highly valued partner of our business and has contributed a huge amount towards the nine million bottles Trutex save every year from landfill. As a carbon neutral business we’re always looking at innovative ways to reduce environmental waste and look forward to working with Outwood in the future to continue this work.”

For the current academic year, it is anticipated that Trutex and Outwood will save even more plastic bottles from landfill. This is because in addition to the blazer, the Outwood boys’ trousers will now be using 100% recycled Trutex fabric as well.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​