Not All Recycled Cords Are Created Equal

*** There are many different qualities of recycled yarn while all are labeled as 100% recycled cotton cord, there is no 100% Recycled cotton. ***

That is because recycled cotton yarn is made of tons of different fabric waste and due to its' production nature ( explained in further detail below) , recycled cotton percentage always varies from 50% to 90%.

However if we think sustainability and environmentally-friendly fibers, what we don't want is exactly the synthetic fibers not ending up on landfills as cotton is naturally biodegradable.

How is recycled yarn produced?

A variety of textile producing industries from home fabrics like carpet, drapery, towels to apparel manufacturers throw away their fabric waste.

Then recycled yarn manufacturers go to these companies and collect their waste material.

Once fabric waste is collected recycled yarn manufacturers create 2 main different qualities.

They manually sort their collected fabric waste (please see below pic.) and select only high content cotton fabrics and alike colors and remove most of the synthetic fabrics but more importantly they remove all carpet and towel waste materials in order to have a higher quality yarn which at the end reflects on the price of your recycled cotton cords.
This second quality has only color selection process so they take kind of what's left over from the previous selection in addition of adding carpet and towel waste. This creates your cord to be uneven colored with speckles on it and more importantly a lot of fuzz and picks due to towel and carpet waste material used in the mix which at the end will reflect on your certain projects like a hand bag, a watchband or a key chain that will have frequent friction and will cause more fraying of the object you created.

Fabric Waste Selection Process

Recycled Cotton Fabric Waste Manual Selection Process

After selected recycled high cotton content fabric collected is cut and shredded breaking the fabric waste into what looks like little balls of cotton candy.

Fabric Waste Cutting Process

Recycled Macrame cord production cycle when fabric waste material gets cut

Fabric Waste Shredding Process

Macrame Recycled Cord Production and how its shredded onto fiber

Recycled Cotton Cord Manufacturing Process

NOW here’s the game changer — The next production step - combing!

Combing is as you know what makes the yarn soft and brings out its shine so if your yarn went through the combing process during production then you have a golden product in your hands.

Macrame Cotton Cord production and combing process

Macrame Cord production and combing machine

But wait!

Most macrame cords are NOT combed during production

So - How Do You Know if Your Macrame Cord was Combed During Production?

Simple - Yarns are numbered such as Ne6, Ne10, Ne20 - the smaller the number of yarn, the thicker the yarn is. It is inversely related.

For handcrafting industry only yarn numbers NE6, NE8, NE10, NE20 are used - NE20 being the highest quality.

Important Fact:

Ne6, Ne8, Ne10 can NOT be combed due to their thickness. (It just doesn't go through the combing machine)

During combing process something very important also takes place, the combing machines rids almost all the extra left unwanted fibers, sort of like giving a one last nice bath to the yarn.

Well you may say, "that's great, I prefer the thicker yarn to make my cord."

Here's an important factor to think with that…. You see, with the Ne8 yarn since its thicker you will have, lets say roughly about 41 strands in your 4 mm recycled cotton macrame cord - whereas with the Ne20 yarn since its a thinner yarn, you will need 3 times as much to make the 4mm cord which is just about 123 strands to make your 4mm macrame cord which will give you a lot fuller view and feel.

While this is purely based on preference and Namaari carries both qualities, Ne8 yarn is virtually more cost effective and I do reflect it on my products' pricing while Ne20 yarn costs a bit more.

Recycled Cotton Cord Difference