"Most cashmere comes from Mongolia and China, where cashmere goats are combed once a year for their fine, soft fleece; a single sweater can use cashmere from four or five goats. As the demand has grown, there are now more than 90 million of the goats in China, and around 25 million more in Mongolia. Overgrazing is turning grasslands into desert. The goats also produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas."
"Using recycled cashmere helps avoid those environmental challenges, but it's historically been difficult to do. Recycling shortens the fiber, which risks making it weaker and more likely to pill. "We don't want to be introducing a recycled product that doesn't perform the same way or is a lower quality or less durable good," Talbot says. "That, to us, is not a sustainability play.""
Reformation now produces multiple sweater styles using a blend of 95% recycled cashmere and 5% recycled wool and aims to eliminate virgin cashmere. Virgin cashmere accounted for nearly 40% of the brand's carbon footprint in 2023 despite representing less than 1% of sourced materials. Most cashmere originates in Mongolia and China, where large goat populations and combing practices contribute to overgrazing, desertification, and methane emissions. Recycling cashmere avoids those impacts but shortens fibers, increasing pilling and weakening garments. Reformation developed a proprietary yarn-twisting, washing, and finishing process, progressing from 70% to 90% and then 95% recycled content.
Read at Fast Company
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