Your next drink is on Billabong

MANILA, Philippines - Five million plastic bottles that could have been choking marine life or filling up landfills have been given a second chance. Australian surf and skate brand Billabong extends its green charge to include a new material called Eco Supreme Suede, a material made from recycled textiles and plastic soda bottles (PET). This exclusive material is used to create sleek surf shorts and bikinis that don’t carry the stigma of most recycled gear — like some chew toy your teething pup gave up on.

Approximately 10 plastic soda bottles are used to create a single pair of boardshorts. These trashed liquid containers are collected, inspected and stripped of their caps and labels and then granulated into small plastic flakes. Through a process called polymerization, the granules are dried and then made into a polyester fiber, the main material of Eco Supreme Suede. 

Behind the advocacy is award-winning freesurfer David Rastovich. Rasta to the surfing community, this New Zealand native maintains his very own organic veggie garden, does yoga daily, meditates and works on making surfboards more eco-friendly — a bona fide hippie on a board. As the face of Billabong’s “Be the Change You Want in the World” campaign, Rastovich surfs the world clad in organic T-shirts and psychedelia-infused pairs that once held carbonated drinks. On a personal level, Rasta is also campaigning to stop the slaughter of whales and dolphins in Japan and is enlisting the rest of the surfing community in this movement.

Billabong first went the recycled route when it started making T-shirts made from organically-grown thread, using water-based inks on its clothing and making and caps and backpacks out of other recycled materials.

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Billabong’s Eco Suede Supreme shorts are available at Stoked, Bonifacio High Street, Power Plant Mall, Alabang Town Center.