Textile is a valuable resource and it can be used a lot longer than most of us keep it in our closets. A great way you can have a positive impact is prolonging the lifetime of textiles by supporting reusing and recycling of textiles. You can do this in several different ways, here are some tips!
We all have clothes we don’t use, that are just hanging in our closet. Perhaps they didn’t suit us as well as we thought. Or maybe we have loved them for a long time but feel it is time to move on. Instead of throwing them away, you can pass them on to someone else who will love them, take good care of them and use them often. And someone else probably has pieces that would fit perfectly into your wardrobe? Visit your local second-hand shop, or why not gather your friends and do a Clothing Swap? That way, you can all get some new inspiring additions to your wardrobe in a way that doesn’t consume any more resources.
When you choose garments that are made from recycled materials, it means material that has once been produced get another chance. When we increase the recycling of textile, we make sure that textile does not become waste but turned into a new and valuable raw material.
Did you know that Lindex goal is that by 2025, 100 per cent of all our materials will be recycled or sustainably sourced? It’s the only way forward.
Read more about recycled materialsAbout 8 kg of textile per person are thrown in the trash every year, just in Sweden. Instead of throwing it away, hand in your textile to a charity, a secondhand shop or to us at Lindex.
We work towards offering garment collection in all our stores and today you can hand in garments in any Lindex store in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Lithuania. We accept all types of garments regardless of where you have bought them initially. The arments should be dry, clean and whole and sealed in a plastic bag.
Garments that are collected in our stores go to our partners in our sales countries. In Sweden and Lithuania Lindex collaborates with Myrorna, in Norway with Fretex and in Finland with Recci.
Our partners work to promote sustainable consumption in their local markets. Therefore, they sort the collected textiles and circulate as much as possible that can be used and loved by someone else, through second hand stores for example. The textiles that, for various reasons, can’t be sold in Sweden may instead be exported for reuse on a foreign market, and our partners have established processes to make sure that the exported textiles are put to use in the right way.
If the quality of the textile is not good enough for reuse, the material is recycled and used to produce for example isolation or industrial cloths. A very small percentage is recycled into new fibres. However, thanks to innovations and new players within recycling, the development is progressing and Lindex actively works with new partnerships to increase this share. If the textile cannot be reused or recycled, it is sent for incineration – but this is a very small share of all the textile that has been collected.
As a fashion company, it is our responsibility to encourage and make it easier for our customers to be part of the change. By offering the possibility to hand in clothes that are not being used anymore as well as the opportunity to buy preloved pieces, we can prolong the lifetime of our clothes together with our customers. Right now, we offer second hand for baby and kidswear in Sweden as well as womenswear in Norway.