Super Eco

Photo credit: Shazari, flickr

Last year Sears kicked PVC packaging to the curb. This year the leaner, greener retailer wants you to wear used plastic bottles—to the office—in a new, eco-update on the old, disco-rific polyester suit.

At first I was afraid. I was petrified. It took all the strength I had not to fall apart ... or dust off my disco ball, but then—I’m dating myself here—I found out it’s NOT a leisure suit! Fashion WILL survive! At least I think so.

Garbage in, fashion out. That’s half of the concept behind Sears’s debonair line of earth-trendy duds for business dudes. The other half: Toxic dry cleaning is out. The breathable polyester business separates, billed under the brand Covington Perfect, are stitched from synthetic polyester spun from recycled plastic bottles, then blended with wool, each of which embody their own eco evils.

At only $250, Sears’s recession-priced "eco-suit" separates hit the racks just in time for Dapper Dad’s Day. They’re lightweight, breathable and may just be cool enough to not to admit where you bought them. The look is “clean-cut, sophisticated” and mostly green. Mostly.

Sure, I’m all for Sears’s new green sleeves, enough to stand in line for tonight’s big Green Monday sale, in fact. But a few stray suit threads require untangling:

1) Aren’t toxic plastic (petroleum derived) bottles still toxic, even after they’ve been recycled and bedazzled with buttons?
2) How green are Sears’s eco-fabric supplier’s plastic bottle recycling and subsequent polyester spinning processes (in terms of energy use, atmospheric and water emissions...)?
3) Can the suits themselves be recycled (when they go out of fashion)?  

My NPR crush, Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal, isn’t sold on Sears’s new “soda pop suit.” Obviously I’m not sure I am either.