We’re devoted to transparency, ensuring our production honors both human rights and environmental integrity, making every item with ethical and eco-conscious practices.
Materials
Which fabric would you like to know about?
- EcoMorph Denim
- Organic Cotton
- Recycled/Regenerated
- Upcycled
Jeanologica green technology used on 3RD ROCK Denims
5000 trees planted per year
1 glass of water used to process 1 pair of jeans
Aniline Free Indigo
We're now in our 3rd evolution of our EcoMorph Denim! There's a few difference to be found between EcoMorph 2.0 & EcoMorph 3.0. We've outlined the key differences in our EcoMorph 3.0 blog post, go check it out to learn more - we've also don a nerdy deep dive into NOVO DENIFADE BE 700 & production here!
The Eco credentials of the EcoMORPH Denim are very exciting indeed. Not only is it made from GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified Organic Cotton, the high tech state of the art processing systems used for washing and finishing the garments actually eliminate all the key environmental issues from our denim processing. This is High tech eco denim right here!
Our denim is finished using the Jeanologia production process. The facility we use is one of only 6 in the world that offer this green denim technology. Aniline free indigo (The 1st sustainable indigo by Archroma!) was also used to colour this 3RD ROCK DENIM collection
- Light and Raw wash denim garments use the Jeanologica E-flow system alongside the Laundry 5.0 waterless washing technology to achieve the colour through laser machine and ozone washing
- Reduces water use by 85% (using only one glass of water per jeans)
- ZERO Discharge - we guarantee zero contamination eliminating discharge of chemicals into the water supply.
- Recycles the 20 litres of water used in the process.
- Ozone washing saves 62% energy
- Zero Bleach used - It's washed by the atmosphere
- Zero stone / no pumice used
- Zero PP spray (Potassium Permanganate)
- All above energy & resource savings contribute to the washes Green EIM score (Environmental Impact Measurement) software that measures the environmental impact within the garment finishing industry.
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- Mid wash denim garments use the ‘Eco Green’ washing process Jeanologic E-flow system alongside Yilmak’s rainforest system.
- The Jeanologica E-flow system saves up to 95% water, 40% Energy & 90% chemicals
- Rainforest finishing reduces water use by over 50% (from normally 12 litres per load to 5 litres per load) and therefore 50% less energy for steam production.
- Zero stone / no pumice used
- Zero PP spray (Potassium Permanganate)
- All above energy & resource savings contribute to the washes Green EIM score (Environmental Impact Measurement) software that measures the environmental impact within the garment finishing industry.
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- The Facility that produces these denims plants 5000 trees a year and recycles up to 20% of waste materials
- They are also SEDEX audited
Our denim blog posts
Beautiful, dreamy and soft...we love organic cotton
How organic cotton looks before it's turned into fabric
This beautiful lady helps us deter pests...what a good girl!
No Co2 is produced in creating synthetic fertilisers
In 3RD ROCK prodcuts we only ever use Cotton that is farmed organically, produced entirely free of chemical pesticides.
Our organic cotton is certified by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) the highest organic standard in the world. GOTS stands alone in its stringent requirements for both environmental and human safety throughout the supply chain
WHY ORGANIC COTTON?
- Natural pesticides and fertilisers are used instead of chemical ones. Chilli, garlic & cows urine are mixed and sprayed onto the crops to deter insects
- Mixed planting - Symbiotic planting of beans between cotton plants brings nutrients naturally to the soil, enhances the cotton's growth, gives farmers a food crop to feed their families and maintains biodiversity and soil fertility.
- Organic cotton farmers, their communities and their ecosystems are healthier and happier. The cotton is a healthier and cleaner product for the farmer right through to the end user.
- Lower CO2 - By using natural fertilizers instead of synthetic ones (7 tonnes of Co2 are produced by creating 1 tonne of nitrogen fertiliser).
- More sustainable farming - less cash input for organic cotton farmers as they don't buy expensive chemical pesticides and can produce their own seeds for next seasons crop. They can also command a higher, more stable price for their crop too.
- GM FREE - Not using genetically modified hybrid seeds contributes to a more sustainable quality of life, less dependency on big multinationals, less debt (as not forced to buy pesticides alongside seeds) and less instability of soil fertility.
Learn why you should choose organic cotton over conventional in our article.
WHERE IS IT FROM?
The organic cotton yarn is made into specific fabrics locally to where the garments are made, this keeps transportation and our carbon footprint to a minimum:
- Woven into twill in Turkey for the trousers and shorts,
- Knitted into jersey in Portugal for the sweatpants, leggings and undies
- Woven into denims in Pakistan for the jeans and denim shorts.
Our cotton blog posts
Ocean plastics, inlcuding fishing nets, are regenerated into fabric fibres
Mountains of discarded carpets are also regenerated into fit-for-purpose fibres
Post consumer plastic bottles are recycled into RePET
Cleaned plastic is made into PET chips, ready to become new fibres for clothing
We use two types of GRS (Global Recycle Standard) certified fabrics : RePET (Recycled Polyester) and a fabric made with Regenerated Nylon.
WHAT ARE THEY MADE FROM?
1) RePET (Recycled Polyester) comes from post consumer waste such as plastic bottles and food packaging. These are ground down into tiny PET chips and melted down to form new fabroc. We use up waste that would otherwise be clogging up our seas and landfills. It also massively reduces the amount of virgin resources needing to be mined for this purpose, and creates a circular economy
Each pair of HIRO trousers made using this fabric contains recycled 24 plastic bottles.
2) Our Regenerated Nylon yarn is produced by Aquafil. This fabric has fantastic properties including UV protection, fast drying, versatile, hyper-resistant, thin, stretch, soft and breathable: it has a unique mix of muscular compression and comfort. We use it mainly in our TITAN leggings because of its excellent coverage and pilling resistance, our LUNA bra because of its shape retention and in our paired EQUINOX + TIDE active sports bikini because it is twice as resistant to chlorine and suntan creams and oils than other fabrics.
Our regenerated nylon fabric is made from a combination of:
- Pre-consumer waste, coming from industrial processes such as plastic components, industrial waste and fabric scraps
- post-consumer waste: Some of which is ocean plastics - nets from the oceans rescued by volunteer divers and nets coming from aquaculture and fish industries. We also use old carpets destined for landfills. Each year 1.8 billion Kilos of carpets are discarded into landfills in the USA each year!? Aquafil have two carpet recycling facilities to help reduce this waste.
The environmental benefits of using this regenerated material are:
- It contributes to cleaning up ocean plastics and saves marine life
- Reduces waste going into landfills
- Implements a closed-loop supply chain.
- Saves using crude oil to make Nylon, which is now used from recycled sources (70,000 barrels are saved for every 10,000 tons of this fabric's raw material)
- Avoids 65,100 tonnes of CO2 eq. emissions (for every 10,000 tons this raw material used) by not needing to process the crude oil into Nylon
Some of our upcycled chalk bags - made from various odds and sods
Our sweet repair patches, because fixing is always better than binning
There are a few very special 3RD ROCK items that have been hand-crafted with upcycled fabrics and production waste scraps to give unique and interesting items with personality.
CHALK BAGS AND BOULDER BUCKETS
Our chalk bags/buckets are all upcycled from surplus fabric - organic cotton rolls, carpets, and other fabrics and trims (zips, binding) from old production runs which would have gone to waste otherwise. Each one is hand made right here in the UK and has it's own unique personality.
REPAIR CLUB FIX PATCHES
Out of the ashes of a pandemic came the ADAPT collection, but what did we do with the legs of all the trousers we made into shorts? We made fix patches or course! Fun embroidery onto the surplus material can not help you to re-vamp your old faithful climbing trousers or worn through jeans, or even just brighten up your backpack. Either way we are happy the fabric is going to good use.
