Showing posts with label recycle clothing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recycle clothing. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Clothing Recycling Program: Present & Future

We went out to scout best clothing recycling programs  and this is what we have found:

H&M
Here’s a way to make that affordable fashion even cheaper. Shoppers 
can bring any bag of used clothing into H&M and get a coupon for 15% 
off their next purchase. The clothing can be from any brand, in any condition.  
  “One bag for one coupon – it doesn’t matter how many clothes are in 
it or what condition they are in. However, at this time, we’re only accepting clothing – no shoes or jewelry. Customers are limited to 2 bags per day.” When the sales associates accept a bag, they tape it
up with special green tape to ensure that no one goes through the 
bags looking for great finds. The bags are shipped to a sorting 
facility where they are divided into 4 groups:
  • Rewear: clothing that is good enough for reuse will be sold
  • Reuse: textiles that can easily be converted can find a second life as cleaning cloths
  • Recycle:some clothes will be broken down and repurposed into new textile fabrics
  • Energy:clothing that can not be reused or repurposed will be burned to create energy.

Any revenue collected from these activities will be used to fund 
the customer coupons, donate to local charities, and re-invest in
 H&M’s sustainability initiatives.
H&M partnered with Swiss company I:CO to facilitate the 
collection and recycling. I:CO is a company that provides the 
infrastructure for clothing recycling initiatives provided by a 
growing number of retailers. And it’s big business: the company
 has 3,000 employees worldwide and currently processes around
 500 tons of used items every day in 74 countries.
The company doesn’t just want to recycle discarded goods – they
 want to upcycle the materials they collect and even influence
 the supply chain to increase the quantity of recycled materials
 in new products.

Only select stores are participating in this program, though H&M
plans on including more stores this year.

The North Face
 The world’s largest outdoor clothing company, has partnered with
 I:CO and The Conservation Alliance to launch a new recycling 
program designed to keep clothing out of landfills.

The Clothes The Loop program allows consumers to drop off worn out
 or unwanted clothing at participating The North Face stores, 
regardless of condition or brand. Specially marked collection 
bins have been placed in ten of the company’s retail stores, 
including Chicago,New York and San Francisco locations.
Consumers who drop off items will receive a voucher that can be 
redeemed for $10 off a purchase from one of the company’s stores.
The Clothes The Loop program will be carried out in collaboration 
with I:CO, a company that collects, sorts and recycles used 
textiles and shoes. I:CO has previously partnered with PUMA,
 Foot Locker, Adidas, Carhartt, Volcom and H&M.
Items deposited into the bins will be sent to a recycling center 
where they are sorted, reused or recycled into raw materials, 
including fibers for new clothing, carpet padding, stuffing for toys
 and carpet padding, according to The North Face.
"Our partnership with I:CO takes our commitment to reducing waste 
even further by providing our customers with an alternative end 
for products they no longer want or need, keeping these items 
from landfills and protecting our natural playgrounds," 
said Adam MottThe North Face corporate sustainability manager.
Approximately 22 billion pounds of textile waste ended up in 
landfills in 2010, according to the U.S. EPA. The production of 
a single T-shirt consumes between 10,000 and 30,000 liters of
 water and produces almost eight pounds of C02 emissions, 
says I:CO on its website
Only five to ten percent of these quantities are used or produced 
during the recycling process, the company says.

All proceeds from the program will benefit The Conservation
 Alliance, which helps fund community-based campaigns to protect wilderness
 and recreation areas.

Puma 
InCycle is available in Puma stores worldwide starting this month - 
the industry's first "closed-loop" clothing line includes clothes, 
footwear and accessories - all Cradle to Cradle Certified.
Puma says its purpose is to help people reduce their personal environmental footprints by buying clothes that can be returned to
the company at the end of life. 

When people return the clothes under PUMA's Bring Me Back Program,
they will either be recycled or composted depending on the material.

"We feel that we are responsible for the environmental impact

 our products cause and this innovative concept in 
sustainability is a first step towards our long-term vision
 of using innovative materials and design concepts for PUMA 
products that can be recycled in technical processes or composted
 in biological cycles," says CEO Franz Koch.
Reported  based on  a story by Jen Boyntontriplepundit.com