PATAGONIA ANNOUNCES MAJOR EXPANSION OF GARMENT RECYCLING PROGRAM AND BEGINS RECYCLING COMPETITORS’ GARMENTS

Patagonia, the outdoor gear and apparel company, have announced the expansion of the Common Threads Recycling Program. This revolutionary program, which initially asked customers to return worn out Capilene baselayers to Patagonia, was launched in Europe in Fall 2006. Now it has been expanded to include any Patagonia used fleeces, any used Polartec-branded fleece garments from other companies, and Patagonia cotton t-shirts.

Customers can pop items in the post to any of the four Patagonia European retail stores, or return items to any of the 68 Patagonia dealers participating in this recycling program in Europe. More than 50 Spring/Summer 2007 company’s garments are recyclable through the newly expanded take-back recycling program (26% of the textile range) and this number will double for the Autumn/Winter 2007 range.

With the expansion of this recycling program, Patagonia becomes the first global company to recycle its products at this scale and to also recycle competitors garments. “With this unique take-back recycling program, our goal is to assume full responsibility for our products, as well as our competitor’s products, at the end of their useful life,” says Patagonia president and CEO, Casey Sheahan. “Moving forward, we hope to expand the world view of recycling beyond just cans, newspapers and bottles – we’re aiming to make clothing a recyclable resource.”

Just as Patagonia pioneered the use of recycled soda bottles in fleece and was the first company in the outdoor industry to switch to 100% organic cotton, the company aims to pave the way for others to get on the garment recycling bandwagon.

Now the goal is to convince consumers to be eco-consumers, in inciting them to recycle their old clothing (that are so used up that they can’t be worn anymore nor given to a charity).

Pop on to www.patagonia.com/recycle and find out how to be greener!