From Trash to Treasure
ECO-MINDED, TRAVEL-FRIENDLY, PRINT-INSPIRED
The Summer Chaser offer premium travel-friendly necessities for the outdoor and coastal lifestyle, ethically crafted from the recycled plastic waste.
Our Planet
We love exploring the world and enjoy everything that travel brings us, from the colours of new cultures to those lazy coastal days. Yet, a walk along the shore also opens the eyes to the tragedy of plastic pollution. While tourism plays an integral part of the economies of many countries, it also contributes to a staggering amount of solid waste generation, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions.
Our Mission
Our mission is to reduce the impact of plastic waste by making the most out of the resources we already have.
Turning trash into treasure promotes better recycling and manufacturing practices, weakens dependence on petroleum, saves energy and reduces carbon emissions.
From thread to packaging and every conscious step in between, we aim to turn the tide on plastic pollution.
“A towel is normally not on anyone’s packing list due to its bulkiness. Yet,
it is a necessity for any adventure. My idea was to create a functional, stylish towel, that is easy to bring anywhere and is also a better option for our planet.”
- Anara,
Founder of The Summer Chaser
Our Fabrics
The Summer Chaser is pioneering the use of a revolutionary fabric that supports the removal of post-consumer plastic waste. About 85% of the fibre content in our towels consists of recycled PET such as plastic bottles. The waste that could have ended up in the landfill, or worse - in our oceans, can now serve you for years to come in the form of a beautiful towel.
What is rPET?
The Summer Chaser products are made with recycled polyester (rPET for short). It is a type of yarn that's produced from synthetic fibres. Recycled polyester is produced by recycling existing materials (like plastic bottles and packaging) but still has all the characteristics and performance as a regular polyester, making it a more sustainable fabric alternative.
How is rPET made?
Recycled polyester fabric starts with collection and sorting of plastic PET waste, mostly post-consumer single-use plastic bottles and food containers. The plastic waste is washed and crushed into small pieces that are easily melted and shaped into pellets. At this point, recycled PET pellets are no different to PET pellets produced from virgin material directly derived from crude oil. These small pieces are then stretched into the finest strings of yarn, transformed into a fibre, and in the end - made into fabric.
What are advantages of recycled polyester?
Producing rPET takes 33% to 53% less energy than creating polyester from scratch. Also, rPET produces approximately 54.6% fewer CO2 emissions to the air than virgin polyester. By using recycled materials to make things like out towels, at least some of the plastic manufacturing practices and weakens dependence on petroleum.
Our Production
Our towels are made in China by the industry's leading manufacturers to fabricate our products.
The innovative fabric that is used to produce our towels is manufactured in Quanzhou by an incredible facility with the production capacity of the whole industrial chain from bottle sorting, cleaning, shredding to yarn spinning and fabric weaving. The company adheres to the concept of low carbon, environmental protection and resource regeneration, and is committed to the research and development of waste resources recovery and recycling technology. The factory complies with European Union ROHS, EN71, REACH standard, and passes the Chinese environment mark product certification, ISO9001, ISO14001 certification. Their recycled yarns are certified under the Global Recycled Standard and are tested for harmful substances by OekoTex Standard 100.
The printing and assembly facility is located in Guangzhou, 700 km away from the textile manufacturer. It is a family-run business that produces for many renowned brands, and we are honoured to work with them. Their highly-skilled team uses low-impact sublimation printing and assembles our towels by hand. Beyond their skill, we are grateful to have partners who understand our values and share our commitment to quality.
We have been asked why we do not produce in Australia. When we started, we sought out the Australian manufacturers certified by Ethical Clothing Australia and were unable to find a factory with the capacity, ability to scale, and equipment required. Not to mention that there is no facility in Australia that turns plastic waste into textile. We have decided to look abroad and got in touch with countless factories before finding the right fit for our values and needs.
For details on the issues covered by the GRS, go to https://textileexchange.org/integrity/
For details on Oeko-Tex Standard 100, go to https://www.oeko-tex.com/en/our-standards/standard-100-by-oeko-tex
For more details on plastic pollution, visit https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/
Recycled paper packaging
We package our products as minimally as possible, using as little plastic as possible. Most of our packaging is made from 100% recycled unbleached paper stock, with non-plastic eco-friendly coatings that are fully recyclable. We do not use unnecessary hangtags or individual poly bags.
The mailers we use to ship our orders are made in the US from 100% recycled paper and are fully recyclable.
Poly bags
Even though we try to avoid plastic in our packaging, we also want to make sure that our products arrive undamaged to our warehouse and to our customers. That is why we use a large shared polybag for shipment in each carton that holds multiple products to protect them against water and dirt. We think the impact from such poly packaging is ultimately less than that of discarding lots of dirty, damaged products.
Plastic-free & 100% Carbon Neutral Delivery
The mailers we use to ship our orders are made from 100% certified compostable plant-based material from Hero Packaging and Better Packaging. Which means, once you receive our product, you can cut up the mailer and put in a home-compost bin (note, these can't be placed in the recycling bin).
Once composted properly, the mailers start to break down and turn into amazing fertiliser for the garden. This takes about 90-120 days (3-4 months).
If the mailers do end up in landfill, they will still break down. We would never encourage our packaging to go to landfill because it still contributes to wastage, but we know that within a couple of years, the mailers will start to decompose.
We also use Sendle - the first postal company in Australia to offer fully carbon neutral delivery services.
Questions or Feedback?
If you want more info on our current sustainability efforts, or have suggestions on what we should explore in future, email us at HEY@THESUMMERCHASER.COM or fill the form below. We want to know what's on your mind!