Fabric Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Let us say upfront before you start reading: We aren’t perfect. But we’re trying. 

We believe in green education, not greenwashing & that’s why we feel strongly about displaying who we are and who we are not (yet) upfront. Ex. We don’t have our Carbon Neutral plan 100% final yet, but we will have our Carbon Offset initiatives defined by Q2 of 2023. We believe that small, intentional action is more meaningful than waiting for it all to be perfect, so we will continue to chug along to reduce our footprint, reduce waste & explore more eco-friendly materials.

Our hope is that by sharing ALL of this proudly and openly, it will start a conversation in the industry, encourage other brands to step up & instead of going head to head - we’ll walk hand in hand as we discover new eco-friendly practices, materials & ways of business together.

Here’s how we’re starting: Products that are timeless, built to last, fabric made from recycled plastic bottles & eliminating single use plastics.

1. Timeless Design

It’s no secret that the fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Fast fashion, ever-changing trends & highly consumable products has led fashion to be the second largest source of pollution in the world (just after oil). While baby products aren’t specifically fashion related, we think they are fashion adjacent. There are plenty of strollers on the market (we’re sure you’ve even seen some of them) that are incredibly affordable, but basically designed to be used for a season or less - from both a durability standpoint and fashion standpoint. 

When we started Bombi™, we knew that we wanted our stroller fashions to be timeless - something that you could purchase for your first baby & easily transition to your second, third, etc. or pass down to a friend - and we wanted our products to be Toddler Tough. What is one without the other if youre mission is sustainability? 

So, we set out to create classic patterns, colors and textile combinations that will stand the test of time. No flash in the pan, here today-gone tomorrow prints. Just understated color combinations that are beautiful, complimentary & timeless. Combine that with a durable frame & packed with parent-centric features, it’s guaranteed to be your new favorite baby gear item!

2. Built To Last

Our strollers undergo rigorous testing to make sure they are built Toddler Tough. That means they are built to stroll, travel, fold & function no matter what adventure life has in store. Our strollers go through:

1. Simulated road testing 
2. Fabric durability testing
3. UV testing
4. Chemical testing

For more info, check out our blog: How We Test Our Strollers

3. Fabric Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

Every single one of our strollers & accessories uses fabric that’s made from at least 50% recycled materials - in fact, our Midnight Black is made using fabric made from 100% recycled materials - and our fabric manufacturing partner has their Global Recycled Standard Certification*

*Global Recycled Standard (GRS) are international, voluntary standards that set requirements for third-party certification of recycled input and chain of custody. The shared goal of the standards is to increase the use of recycled materials. The GRS includes additional criteria for social and environmental processing requirements and chemical restrictions.

How Is The Fabric Made?

1. Collect Plastic Bottles

Before anything else, plastic bottles must be collected in order to make the rPET (aka recycled polyethylene terephthalate). Thanks to many recycling initiatives in the USA, the recycling rate has gone from 7% to 32% (while still much lower than places like the UK, the EPA announced the overall national recycling goal of increasing the U.S. recycling rate to 50% by 2030)

2. Bottle Bales

The plastic bottles are then crushed and made into PET bottle bales (think of giant hay bales but instead of hay, it’s plastic bottles)

3. Sorted, Washed, Crushed, Dried

They are then sorted for anything that may have been wrongly recycled, cleaned to remove any labels/impurities/adhesive & broken into plastic flakes.

4. Melted & Dried (again) & Spun

The plastic flakes are then melted down into PET pellets which can be used for a variety of purposes, but of course ours are used to make fabric. Once they are dried, they are spun into a fiber that will be used to create yarn!

5. Yarn to Fabric

The yarn is then woven into fabric & the process begins again! Compared to the conventional process of creating virgin polyester, rPET is made from recycled materials which effectively reduces the emission of carbon dioxide by nearly 80%.

4. Completely Eliminating Single Use Plastics

We know, we know… ironic to eliminate them when our fabric is literally made from them. But honestly, our hope is that one day we won’t be using this fabric anymore - either because we’ve evolved to something more sustainable or there aren’t enough plastic bottles to make the fabric anymore. Either way would be a win/win/win

So far, we’ve been able to eliminate over 36,000 single use plastics in our packaging including removing:

• Zip ties
• Plastic sleeves for our instruction books
• Packing peanuts
• Plastic tape
• Bags for wheels, accessories & even our stroller

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

What’s Next

We are committed to taking small steps every year to reduce our carbon footprint, implement greener manufacturing practices & create products that have less impact on the environment. We aren’t perfect, but we are getting there - that’s why by Q2 of 2023 we promise to release our Carbon Neutral Plan. Displaying it boldly and proudly, holding ourselves to a higher standard - not just for this generation, but all the ones that follow. 

About Bombi™

We make baby gear you can feel good about. We put parents & planet first by creating modern, eco-conscious strollers that are built to last, made from recycled materials & affordably priced.