Did you know that 15 million plastic bottles were thrown away yesterday in Britain? That's 275 000 if of plastic year! wouldn't it be better there was another use for them? Well, maybe you're wearing plastic botties! into Yes! Because recycled plastic bottles are made a type of fabric called fleece When was this first done? Well, the first fleece was made in 1979 by an American company but recycled plastic wasn't used until 1993. Now, fleece is used to make all kinds of clothes, from jackets to sweatshirts to socks and even baby clothes How is fleece made? Well, the used plastic bottles are collected from the recycling banks. They aren't all used to make fleece so they are separated into different types of plastic. The PET plastic is sent to a reprocessing plant. Here, the bottles are cut into small pieces and are put in water to clean them. Then they are melted and put in a special machine which creates the synthetic fibres. These fibres are then woven to make the fleece fabric. How many bottles are used to make a sweatshirt? About 25 two-litre bottles. This means that less oil is used and fewer toxic emissions are released into the air So, the fleece sweatshirt you're wearing is not only cool, but environmentally friendly too!