People are always amazed that our products are made out of 100% post-consumer recycled plastics. They’re shocked that plastic trash can be made into beautiful products, let alone products as soft and durable as ONDA towels.
One of the most common questions we get asked is “How does a plastic water bottle become an ONDA product?”
Well, the process is rather simple and we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide on how plastic is repurposed into colorful patterns and useful products.
Step 1: Gather Plastic
The first step, if not the most important, is the gathering of reusable waste products. Locations such as oceans, beaches, landfills, and even your own back yard is a great place to start. It is important to remove as much as possible from the environment in order to protect marine life and other ecosystems where plastic is quite common. Once completed, collected items are sent to a plastic processing factory. 
Step 2: Break Down Plastic
Before the plastic can be repurposed in fabric material, it first needs to be broken down. Plastic items are separated and sent through a chopping machine, breaking them down into little tiny pieces, or chips. Any leftover paper or trash is then taken out of the pile of chips, and they are sent along to become even more dense and fine.
Step 3: Melt the Chips
Now that the plastic is broken up into chips, it needs to become as fine as possible. The chips are sent through a melting machine, treating the plastic to high heat temperatures. Once melted, the chips are filtered to remove all impurities or harmful toxins.
Step 4: Spin into Yarn
We are now on the first step of the fabric-making process. The melted chips are now spun and turned into polyester yarns, or other material if desired. Yarn is essential for making plastic wearable and mendable.
Step 5: Weave & Create
Finally, the yarn is now weaved and sewn into beautiful patterns and wearable products, like our ONDA towels!
As you can see, turning plastic into patterns is a pretty straightforward process. It’s amazing how far technology has come to produce such unique and beautiful items from plastic and trash. The production of ONDA towels is our way to help the planet stay clean and healthy and do our part to increase awareness of how important recycling is.
While eliminating plastic use from our lives can be extremely difficult, we hope this inspires you to dispose of plastic products properly so they land in the right hands, and can be repurposed into future resources. We can all play a part in keeping our oceans and planet clean!
