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Levi Strauss & Co. expands clothing recycling initiative to all US stores

The company aims to make it easier for consumers to recycle clothing and shoes, underscoring its commitment to sustainability.

28th July 2015

Innovation in Textiles
 |  San Francisco, CA

Sustainable, Clothing/​Footwear

The company aims to make it easier for consumers to recycle clothing and shoes, underscoring its commitment to sustainability by reducing the volume of waste sent to landfills and creating an infrastructure that supports a circular economy by 2020.

Recycling initiative

Consumers may drop off any brand of clean, dry clothing or shoes in the collection boxes at their local Levi’s store. Any consumer who brings an item of clothing or shoes to recycle will receive a voucher for 20% off a single, regular-priced Levi’s item in-store.

Following the recent launch of the new Levi’s denim collection for women, this expanded recycling effort supports the introduction of Friday Fashion Exchange events that invite women to try on the new collection and bring their gently worn jeans for recycling.

These events will take place every Friday in all US Levi’s mainline stores until 28 August. Women who recycle their clothing at a Friday Fashion Exchange event will receive an additional voucher for US 10 off their purchase of any item from the new women’s denim collection.

Sustainability

While many consumers are familiar with recycling bottles, cans and paper, most still throw away clothing. Annually, Americans discard more than 28 billion pounds of unwanted clothing, shoes and other textiles. Charitable organizations and others collect roughly 15% of these items, while the remaining 85% — 24 billion pounds — end up in landfills, the company reports.

“We’re thinking about sustainability across all facets of our business and how to shift consumer behavior to make recycling clothing the norm,” said Michael Kobori, Vice President of Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co.

“As an industry leader, we consider all phases of our product lifecycle, including stages beyond our direct control like the product’s end point. Collecting used clothing at our stores makes it simple and easy for consumers to do their part and builds upon our commitment to do the right thing for the environment.”

I:Collect

The expanded programme builds upon an ongoing partnership with I:Collect (I:CO), an end-to-end solutions provider for reuse and recycling of apparel, footwear and other textiles. The company has best-in-class procedures for sorting clothing and shoes — wearable items are resold and re-worn, while other pieces are reused as products are recycled into fibres for insulation and paddings or upcycled into new products.

“We admire Levi Strauss & Co.’s vision and impressive sustainability efforts. We are proud to be expanding our partnership to increase consumer access to clothing and shoe recycling opportunities,” said Jennifer Gilbert, I:CO USA’s Chief Marketing Officer.

“This in-store take back programme not only makes it easy for consumers to recycle their unwanted items, but also helps create much-needed awareness about the challenge of textile waste and the aim to keep these items in an everlasting cycle.”

www.levistrauss.com

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