As a socially responsible company, we’re all about recycling, but as we started talking amongst ourselves in the office, we realized that most of the men at Mack Weldon simply throw away their old underwear. We all just sort of assumed that underwear was the one item of clothing that couldn’t be donated. Worried that this way of thinking was not unique to Mack Weldon employees, we surveyed our customers and learned that 88% of them didn’t know what to do with their old underwear. This was a problem. So, we set out to find a better solution for old underwear than the landfill.
In our search, we stumbled upon a company called Community Recycling. CR is rethinking what it means to recycle apparel. When most people think of recycling, they think of taking a used product, breaking it down into its core components, and rebuilding it as something new. This is what happens when you recycle paper, plastic, or glass. But what we learned from CR is that apparel reuse is actually much better for the environment than typical recycling. Most apparel is still in good enough shape to be worn, so by donating for reuse, not only are you helping people who need clothes, but you’re helping the environment too because the process of breaking down apparel into its component fibers is pretty energy intensive. In fact, clothing reuse has more of an environmental impact than recycling plastic and glass combined.
As we got to know CR better, we decided they would make the perfect partner to help us launch Mack Weldon Recycles. With Mack Weldon Recycles, we’ve made it easy and effortless to give a second life to your old underwear. Here’s how simple it is:
Once your goods get to Community Recycling, they are sorted, industrially washed, and repackaged in bulk to be sent to 50 countries around the world. Apparel that was too badly damaged for reuse is broken down into fibers and used in housing insulation and other products.
So, print a label, empty out your drawer, fill up a bag, and drop it off at your nearest UPS location. Once that’s done, pat yourself on the back for helping planet Earth and treat yourself to some new striped underwear.
The Weekly Brief 