Are there any citable data, about how much of polar fleece [AKA polyester fleece, micro fleece, polar wool, vega wool, velo vool, plush, velours, Vlies, Plüsch...] fiber products [typically blankets, outdoor clothing, carpets, etc.]. are made of poly(ethylene terephtalate) [PET] and how much are from other poly(esters) [if any] ?
I am not sure but I think that there is some production in PLA. Ask your question to Corbion. I have doubts about the production in other polyesters like PBT or PEN.
Cost is a big consideration in material choice. Since these polyesters (PLA, PET, PBT, PTT, PEN) have above ambient glass temperatures, they're all "glassy" at room temperature. Therefore, the feel of the fabric can be manipulated to a large extent by making the fiber finer. The vast majority of the fibers for polar fleece would be PET (that's the main material mentioned in the patent literature, and one is hard pressed to find a mention of other materials on a cursory search). That's because PET is just very cost-effective (one of the major commodity thermoplastics and made from commodity raw materials), with a very large and established recycle stream. None of the other materials are as cheap or as recyclable (you need recyling infrastructure, including companies who collect them and those who clean/sort/process them to recycle).
Thank you both.
My literatrure sources give me different opinions. Two books (Franck: Kunststoffkompendium, ISBN 3-8023-1855-2, in German; Duchacek: Polymery, ISBN 80-7080-241-3, both a bit older [2000 and 2005]) write, that almost all fiber production for textiles is from PET, while this paper (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10924-008-0106-7 ) says, that >50% of fiber production for textiles is from PET, but only as reference to the paper from Chemical Fibers International 47 (4) 248–250, 1997, which is unavailable to me.
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