Denims Not Long-Lasting as 20 Years Ago, And Wool is Under-Rated

Are people more receptive to the idea of recycled garments now than it was when you started? To put it differently: is recycling working?
Ron van de Wiel: I don’t think people are really busy with it. The ones that are open to recycling is just a fraction of the population and they are also open to re-use, so that’s a good focus, to extend the life of things we already have. For accidental shoppers[RB1] , the product has to be nice, and be a part of recycling is the cherry on the pie. With fast fashion claiming all sorts of things, it is harder for true stories to surface and get in the heart of people. That also makes it difficult to gain mass adaptation for true recycling initiatives as the cheap alternative makes it seem easy and cheap.

You started with the denim waste stream. Why denim? A related question here: denims are among the longest-lasting of garments; so, jeans, etc, are not thrown away as much as t-shirts and shirts may be. So, what is it about post-consumer denim waste that makes it a big waste stream?
Ron van de Wiel: Denims are not as long lasting anymore as 20 years ago when elastane was not yet adopted in every single pair of jeans. Cotton fibres now have more friction and jeans last much shorter than ever before. We started with jeans because the recycling company in the Netherlands was processing those for another industry in big volumes; so, there was already established demand and infrastructure for worn out jeans. Only the fibres had to be improved for spinning. Plus, the story was clear: turn a pair of jeans into something else that you can wear.·

Same thing about woollens. Also, woollen waste streams are not much talked or known about outside the wool sector. Tell us more about this waste stream both in the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe.
Ron van de Wiel: I think wool is a terrific material and people wear it for very long, something most LCAs don’t incorporate in their results. The material is underrated, but well known in outdoor since we introduced Icebreaker to nature-loving people back in 1997. The waste stream of wool in countries is not enormous on its own but since it has value because it can be used again in new products, there is a global trade with the epicentre being in Prato, Italy.·

From where and how is all the discarded materials collected? How did you do it when you started, and how do you do it now?
Ron van de Wiel: This depends on the waste. We used old tents, old footwear, old wool, old cotton, climbing cords and so on.

From EuRIC to TRA, many have rung alarm bells about the state of textile recycling in Europe. What is your own experience, and where do you think the problem lies? Is it collection, is it sorting, or is it recycling itself?
Ron van de Wiel: The problem has many origins. Look at wool. This is a regenerated raw material upgraded in a specific place in an ecosystem of complete supply chain partners. For cotton and polyester there is no such place; it’s very fragmented and the materials are too expensive compared to virgin materials. If you see that cotton prices have not really risen in 50 years, how can recycled materials compete?. Same for recycled polyester, virgin from Asia is getting cheaper and cheaper. So, there is no incentive for sorting and recycling companies. Maybe they need to be nationalised,

The problem is that most of these bodies have no idea truly about which buttons they should really push and also being afraid of protecting their own industry against influx of cheap things from Asia.· 

Tell us about your own production facilities. Can you take us through the chain... from collection to recycling to retail?
Ron van de Wiel: Collection of waste through retail is not something we run everywhere. It does feel counter-intuitive to ask retailers to ship a box of old jeans to us. There is still a system in place with sorting companies. So, we’d rather tap into those return logistics and connect them to our supply chain partners. Since we are a relatively small brand, we don’t work with many companies. 

Sometimes we find a new waste stream like old tents and then we build a new supply chain from the ground up. For such projects, we mostly work with big retailers so we have a guaranteed material supply and significant demand. Most of the production partners are located in Europe and Portugal is the country where we make the majority (70%) of our products. Then we have Turkey (20%) and Asia (10%) because we wanted to explore polyester recycling back in 2020. With Bever in The Netherlands we assist in seven out of the 16 waste streams from products they collect in 45 stores. 

These waste streams are shipped in bulk to various recycling partners. Of course, our need is less than the waste that is collected but those companies mostly still have demand for downcycling, although that is also under pressure. 

Your website lists over 170 stores where your products are available. How many of these are your own, and how many are multi-brand outlets? Brick and mortar stores necessarily are about people walking in. It also means you get direct feedback. Please share your experience about this aspect.
Ron van de Wiel: We don’t do own retail and keep rather quiet on our own website not to upset our retail partners. With retail partners we run surveys and learn how consumers react. Instore storytelling is key because without it you are just another young new brand without much visibility. 

It’s also just not about educating staff in stores but also the buyers and owners of the retailer, big or small. It’s a recycle movement, and a journey about challenges and opportunities, about fun and failure. For me personally, I want to be able to show my kids that things that are difficult and uncomfortable are best to be taken head on, to make a difference for a future generation, to struggle a bit in life, to get up again and stay positive.