Germany's trash is China's cash. A bit fuzzy statement is the fact as industry insiders revealed that lots of PET bottles from Germany supermarkets are dumped in Chinese markets only to manufacture sweaters for Germany.

From 2002, PET bottles of mineral water, club soda and soft drinks have been transported to China, where manufacturers convert these discarded raw recyclable materials into comfy sweaters.

It is estimated that a single 16 litre container can be a raw material for one sweater.

Chinese textile industry has huge demands for plastic and it is cheaper to import PET bottles from Germany than to produce plastic at home. The production cost is very low in China, because labor force is cheap. However, it has to cope with issues of environment.

A synthesized sweater’s price is from Euro50 to Euro100, but the cost of materials is just 32 European cents.

In Far East, raw materials like plastic cannot meet local demand, so the used raw materials like PET bottles have a huge markets and complementary profits.
 
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China