The North Face outdoor apparel is doing their part to help sustain the environment for which their products are made. They have a recycling program called Clothes The Loop, and today, they announced that they were going to expand it to all of its retail and outlet stores within the United States in tandem with an in-store and social media campaign to encourage consumers to recycle any clothes or footwear, regardless of the condition or the brand.
Clothes The Loop reuses items or reverts them to basic materials, which helps extend the lifecycle of many of the items brought that are brought in.
This is a big step for a big name brand as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 24 billion pounds of post-consumer waste goes to landfills each year and that number is only increasing. For those of you that may have trouble grasping that number, it accounts for about 5% of all landfill space.
Recycling textiles via Clothes The Loop will ultimately help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water usage. But consumers have to do their part in bringing products to these locations to be recycled. If 300 million people recycle just one shirt, we could save up to 210 billion gallons of water and keep up to 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Adam Mott, director of sustainability for The North Face, talked about how their company is committed to creating a long lasting positive impact and went on to say, “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.”
From April 20th to April 26th, each customer who brings in used products for the Clothes The Loop campaign, The North Face will donate $5 donation to Conversation Alliance. Customers can also earn one discount voucher that can be used towards the purchase of The North Face products.
Those who want a chance to win a $100 gift card can also take photos of themselves recycling products and share it on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtags #ClothesTheLoop and #TNFContest and tag their friends.
This is an interesting way for a very big company to be proactive in recycling and to encourage its customers to do the same through social media. Hopefully other companies will follow The North Face.