SYRACUSE -- When Syracuse University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry celebrate graduation in a month, nearly 98,000 plastic bottles will be on display in the Carrier Dome.
But not in their original container shapes. They've been recycled to make 3,900 graduation gowns. All of the custom-designed blue Syracuse and green SUNY-ESF undergraduate gowns, along with the traditional black master's gowns, are made with the product.
The Repreve Fabric uses fibers from approximately 25 post-consumer plastic bottles per gown that likely would have ended up in landfills.
The Herff Jones Collegiate Caps and Gowns Co. has made the gowns available to the two schools.
