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A new campaign is aiming to increase the amount of plastic bottles that get recycled in the UAE. The Simply Bottles initiative has been launched by eco-friendly clothing manufacturer DGrade, which plans to build the world’s first ‘plastic to yarn’ recycling plant in Dubai. Kris Barber, CEO of DGrade, explains why they chose the Emirates:

DGrade, the manufacturer of eco-friendly clothing, has launched the Simply Bottles initiative to increase recovery and recycling rates of plastic bottles in the UAE. According to the company, as part of the initiative it plans to develop the world?s first bottle-to-yarn recycling plant, as well as to educate and equip businesses, schools and individuals with the tools and infrastructure required to reduce their plastic pollution and increase their recycling rates of plastic bottles.

Eco-friendly clothing manufacturer DGrade has launched the ‘Simply Bottles’ initiative, which aims to increase recovery rates of plastics bottles and lead to the development of the world’s first bottle-to-yarn recycling plant based in the UAE. The strategy will start this month and intends to educate and equip businesses, schools and individuals with the infrastructure and tools…

co-friendly fashion is the latest global trend that many in the trade are determined to turn into a sustainable norm. In the UAE, clothing retailers have designs on your old plastic bottles, writes Rebecca McLaughlin-Duane If global trends are ­anything to go by, it might not be long before rubbish is ­transformed into ready-to-wear in the UAE. The popularity of sustainable, eco-friendly fashion worldwide has been steadily on the rise and an event dedicated to the cause, Green Fashion Week, recently held its spring season in the United States.

When you think about recycling, what do you think it means? Where do the recyclables go? What happens to them? D-Grade is a recycled clothing company which takes plastic bottles, breaks them down into a plastic yarn and weaves that into everyday wear. Thoughts of plastic clothing tend to conjure images of garbage bags, ’90s-style outfits and Lady Gaga-esque get-up, but D-Grade’s products are not that at all – as D-Grade founder and organiser Kris explains, ‘It came to my attention some time ago that the plastic found in ordinary drinking water bottles is the same polymer as that used in the manufacturing of polyester. I teamed up with partners in the UK and began developing clothing collections using a process of extruding plastic into fibre and spinning high quality yarns.

On June 14, 2013, the winners of the inaugural event were announced at an awards ceremony and conference hosted by Ed Begley Jr., and attended by such notables as Alice Waters and Jackson Browne. The competition drew over 100 applicants from countries around the world including Romania, Slovenia, Kenya, Malaysia, UAE and the United States. You can learn more about the 2013 entrants and their innovative ideas in this video. The Winners of the Most Innovative Business award were DGrade Clothing (UAE), a designer and producer of clothing collections from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles; and Pulp Works (USA), creating sustainable packaging alternatives made from pulp.