Is the cycle clothing industry greenwashing?

Hannah Bussey investigates whether our favourite brands are pulling the recycled polyester over our eyes

- Hannah Bussey

I’ve just unwrapped an item of cycling kit that came through the post. Like a child’s game of pass-the-parcel, it was nestled in several outer layers of packaging, none of which were plastic, which I am assured were all made from either 80% reclaimed, 100% recycled, or packaged from responsibly sourced FSC cardboard. I’m told the jersey itself is made using Bluesign fabrics that have also been responsibly sourced. My virtuous self has signalled. I felt confident that I had a sustainable/eco/green item.

Then an email landed in my inbox. It was an inquiry from a reader requesting that we share more information about product manufacturing. As a team, we’ve begun to really focus on highlighting the eco credentials of any product we’re reviewing. This is a conscious effort and something we’d like to formalise in CW in the coming months. Once we’ve worked out exactly what we should be looking for.

But the email got me thinking: what do we know for sure? What do these terms, standards or claims even mean and wouldn’t it be helpful if someone could produce a quick reference guide? It turned out that along with the ‘sustainable’ jersey I had also opened up a can of worms.

The more I dug into these claims, standards and schemes, the more unanswered questions I had, for brands quoting the ‘standards’, as well as the bodies behind them all. It was time to call the experts.