The North Face announced the expansion of its Clothes The Loop recycling program to all of its retail and outlet stores in the U.S. in tandem with an in-store and social media campaign to encourage consumers to recycle unwanted apparel and footwear from any brand in any condition. Clothes The Loop extends the lifecycle of apparel and footwear brought in by consumers by giving them a new life through reusing items or reverting them to basic materials used for new product manufacturing.
As part of the program, it aims to recycle more than 100,000 lbs of apparel and footwear in 2015. Initially piloted at 10 The North Face retail locations in February 2013, Clothes The Loop is now available in all 83 of The North Face retail and outlet stores nationwide.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 24 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) goes to landfills each year – the equivalent of about 70 pounds of textiles per person. This accounts for nearly 5 percent of all landfill space. And this amount is growing. Between 1999 and 2009, the volume of PCTW grew by 40 percent, while the diversion rate only increased by 2 percent. Textile recycling has a major impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water usage; if 300 million Americans recycle just one t-shirt, we would avoid use of up to 210 billion gallons of water and keep up to 1 million pounds of CO2 out of our atmosphere.
“We’re committed to creating responsible products – both in how we design them, and also in how long they last,” said Adam Mott, director of sustainability for The North Face. “We’re expanding Clothes The Loop to help find a second life for pre-owned apparel and footwear that might otherwise go to waste. We hope this campaign gets people thinking about the lifecycle of the products they buy and how they can take simple steps to help protect our environment.”
Through Clothes The Loop, more than 14,540 pounds (7.27 tons) of apparel and footwear have been diverted from landfills so far.
“We have seen fantastic results with this program to date and have received hundreds of requests from customers to expand it. We are excited about this momentum and continuing to scale effective apparel and footwear recycling for more responsible consumption,” added Mott.
