Garden Notes
The Recycled Thread in Our Hoodies
GRS on the recycled polyester blend — what that certificate covers when a hoodie is mostly organic cotton.
Some of our hoodies are not pure cotton, and we say that out loud. A common blend on the blanks we print is roughly 80% organic cotton / 20% recycled polyester for US production (Europe sometimes lands closer to 85/15 on the same style family). That recycled slice is why you will see GRS — the Global Recycled Standard — next to GOTS and OCS on those product pages.
Look at the Mahavatar Keanu Blessing Heavyweight Hoodie: thick midweight fleece (about 10.3 oz / 350 g/m²), kangaroo pocket, and the fabric note that GOTS and OCS cover the organic cotton content while GRS certifies the recycled content in the blend. That matches the Printful / Stanley/Stella Organic Heavyweight Hoodie blank language for the 80/20 organic-and-recycled build.
The same GOTS + OCS + GRS fabric language shows up on side-pocket organic hoodies, like the Mahavatar side-pocket hoodie. Different pocket, same honesty rule: if the page lists GRS, it is talking about the recycled portion of the textile — not rebranding the whole garment as “a recycled hoodie.”
GRS is not a magic word for “this whole hoodie is recycled.” It verifies recycled material content and related chain-of-custody for that portion of the fabric. The organic cotton side still leans on GOTS/OCS language for organic content. Two certificates, two jobs. Think of it like labeling compost and potting mix separately even when they share a bed.
One more careful detail: some styles, such as the Forest Guardian women’s mid-weight hoodie, also list OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for the fabric — a test standard for harmful substances, different again from organic or recycled content claims. We only mention OEKO-TEX where the product page actually says it. We do not borrow it for every hoodie in the shop.
Humble version, garden-hours edition:
- We print on blanks whose suppliers document organic and recycled fiber claims with named standards.
- We do not invent certificates for mug glaze, for non-organic garment-dyed cotton, or for vibes.
- If a hoodie page lists GRS, that recycled polyester content has a paper trail. If it does not list GRS, we will not borrow the word from a neighbor product.
Keanu still prefers sun patches to supply-chain PDFs. Fair. The PDFs are for us — so the soft thing you pull on for fall market walks matches what the page claims, and nothing louder.