Polyester comes from petroleum. More specifically, it’s made by chemically combining two petroleum-derived compounds into a plastic polymer that can be melted and spun into fibers. It’s the most produced fiber on the planet, accounting for 57% of all fiber production worldwide in 2023. That means more than half the fabric made on Earth starts as crude oil.
The Raw Materials
The specific type of polyester used in nearly all clothing is polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET. It’s the same plastic used in water bottles and food packaging. PET is created from two building blocks: terephthalic acid, which comes from oxidizing a chemical called p-xylene (extracted from petroleum), and ethylene glycol, another petroleum product. When these two compounds react together under heat, they form long chains of repeating molecular units. That chain is polyester.
Because both ingredients trace back to fossil fuels, polyester production is tightly linked to the petrochemical industry. Some researchers are working on deriving these same building blocks from plant-based sources like hemicellulose, but the vast majority of polyester on the market today is entirely petroleum-sourced.
How Oil Becomes Fabric
Turning raw PET into the soft threads in your shirt involves a process called melt spinning. The polyester chips or pellets are heated to around 250 to 260°C, well above their melting point, until they become a thick liquid. That liquid is then forced through a device called a spinneret, which is essentially a showerhead with tiny holes ranging from 0.127 to 0.254 millimeters in diameter.
As the molten polymer pushes through these holes, it emerges as thin filaments. Cold air hits them immediately, solidifying each strand. These strands are then drawn (stretched) at speeds that can reach up to 1,800 meters per minute, which aligns the molecular structure and gives the fiber its strength. After drawing, the filaments are wound together into yarn, which can be woven or knitted into fabric. The entire transformation from petroleum product to wearable fiber happens through industrial chemistry and engineering, with no natural growing or harvesting involved.
A Brief History
Polyester’s story starts in 1931, when the American chemist Wallace Carothers at DuPont first created polyester compounds in his lab. But Carothers was more interested in another invention, polyamide, which became nylon. He set polyester aside. A decade later, two British chemists named John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson, working at a company called Calico Printers’ Association in Lancashire, England, drew the first polyester filament in 1941.
After World War II, the chemical industry scaled up rapidly. DuPont commercialized the fiber under the brand name Dacron, while ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) in Britain and other European chemical giants brought their own versions to market. By the 1970s, polyester had become synonymous with affordable, wrinkle-free clothing. Its reputation suffered during the disco era’s shiny suits, but the fiber never lost its dominance in manufacturing. Today it’s in everything from athletic wear to bedsheets to industrial ropes.
Scale of Production
Global fiber production hit an all-time high of 124 million tonnes in 2023, and polyester made up the largest share by far. Virgin fossil-based synthetic fibers (mostly polyester) jumped from 67 million tonnes in 2022 to 75 million tonnes in 2023. For comparison, global cotton production was just 24.4 million tonnes that same year. Polyester outproduces cotton by roughly three to one.
Annual polyester textile production reached 57 million tonnes as recently as 2020, and the number has only climbed since. The fiber’s low cost, durability, and wrinkle resistance make it the default choice for fast fashion and performance clothing alike.
Environmental Cost
Producing 100 kilograms of raw polyester textile generates about 119.6 kilograms of CO2, meaning the fabric roughly matches its own weight in carbon emissions before it ever reaches a store. Since polyester is a plastic, it does not biodegrade in any meaningful human timeframe. Discarded polyester clothing will persist in landfills for decades or longer.
Washing is another concern. Each laundry cycle releases microplastic fibers from polyester garments into wastewater. Studies measuring this shedding have found that a single wash can release between 640,000 and 1,500,000 individual microfibers per kilogram of fabric, depending on the garment’s construction. Lighter wash loads tend to cause more friction per garment, increasing the release. One study found that microfiber shedding dropped from roughly 4.8 million fibers per kilogram at the lightest loads to about 1 million per kilogram when the machine was more fully loaded.
Recycled Polyester
Because PET is the same plastic in beverage bottles, those bottles can be collected, cleaned, melted down, and re-spun into textile fiber. This recycled version, often labeled rPET, avoids the need to start from fresh petroleum. In the European Union, about 57% of commercially available recycled PET is high enough quality for food-grade applications like bottle-to-bottle recycling, while around 40% gets “downcycled” into lower-grade uses, including textile fiber.
EU regulations are pushing this further. Starting in 2025, beverage bottles must contain at least 25% recycled plastic, rising to 30% by 2030. For textiles, brands increasingly advertise recycled polyester content in jackets, bags, and activewear. The recycling process uses less energy than making virgin polyester, though the resulting fabric still sheds microplastics when washed and still won’t biodegrade at the end of its life. Recycled polyester extends the useful life of petroleum-based plastic, but it doesn’t eliminate the fundamental issue: the fiber is still plastic, and it still originated from oil.