The North Face, an American outdoor apparel brand, is expanding its Clothes The Loop textile recycling program, now with recycling systems in all its retail and wholesale stores across the United States, aiming to recycle at least 100,000 pounds (45.4 tons) of clothing and shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Clothes The Loop recycling program was originally piloted in 10 stores in February 2013, and to date, 83 stores have joined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clothes The Loop recycling program partners with clothing recycling company I:Collect, which recycles clothing and shoes from all brands and has successfully intercepted over 7.27 tons of clothing resources that would otherwise end up in landfills since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clean and dry items (I:Collect does not accept dirty or wet clothing) are sent to the recycling center and sorted into 350 categories for processing. Some clothing is then donated to charities, while others are processed into usable raw materials to be made into insulation, carpet anti-slip mats, toy stuffing, or fibers for use in new clothes or shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. EPA estimates that more than 10.89 million tons of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) ends up in landfills each year. Between 1999 and 2009, this figure increased by 40%, while the amount of clothing recycled increased by only 2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The North Face's recycling of 3 billion t-shirts is equivalent to reducing water consumption by 210 billion gallons and carbon emissions by 1 million pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n