How Do You Like Your Jeans? Blue or Green?

"Recycling" and "reusing" are two different things, especially in the clothing world.

When speaking in textile terms, "recycling" does not mean dropping off at your local charity store to be given to the needy or sold to a reseller who is creating their own online, work-at-home business to feed their family. Think in terms of "recycling" like melting old soda cans into aluminum, or crushing glass to make new bottles. Depending on how old you are, think newspaper drives at school.

Recycling denim made from cotton has become a huge phenomenon, and has created literally tons of housing insulation used to help needy families, community-centric buildings, and such. Authentic denim, because it is made mostly from cotton which is a sustainable fiber, can be broken down to its natural state and transformed into new products, and not just jeans. Just counting students alone, 221,418 pieces of denim have been collected through partnerships in the most prolific program, Blue Jeans Go Green™, a program by Cotton Incorporated. Any kind of denim can be donated and recycled, not just jeans of the two-legged variety. Jackets, shirts, vests, skirts, and even backpacks made from denim can be part of the program. Ripped, stained, embellished, printed, embroidered, and even ripped! Joking aside, any type of denim can be recycled, as long as it is produced by at least 90% cotton.

Through the Blue Jeans Go Green™ program, the donations are transformed into UltraTouch™ Denim Insulation, a portion of which is donated to help with building efforts in communities around the country. The Blue Jeans Go Green™ website has a link for an application to receive insulation.

Many national retailers have drop-off points for your denim that often include a coupon for new products at their store. Companies such as Levi’s, Madewell, American Eagle, Old Navy, Harley-Davidson, and many others have participated in the program; some ongoing. Many small businesses and community events sponsor one-time collections, as well. You can even sponsor your own at a school, company, reunion, or other event. Blue Jeans Go Green™ offers a prepaid mailing label through their website for sending the boxed-up donations.

What’s better than denim recycled into insulation? Insulation made from denim recycled! Bonded Logic, Inc. accepts denim insulation, sometimes used in packaging perishable items, to recycle. But wait! There’s more. Levis is not only involved in the denim recycling program, but has introduced a Water<Less® technique to use far less water in the production of jeans. The amount of water is mind-blowing. One pair of jeans requires—are you sitting down in your blues?—7,600 litres of water.

Sustainable fashion is not just a trend, but a necessity. Landfills are swamped with clothing often purchased from cheap websites that rip, fade, and shrink on the first or second washing. Insta-worthy clothing is also a trend that results in wear-it-one-time and get rid of it. Consignment shops and thrift stores are overwhelmed with cheap, faded, and shrunken clothing, with some reseller shops selling as low as 75 cents. In response to the additional load on landfills and oceans, the Sustainable Fashion Movement is not only promoting programs, such as the denim recycling, but recycling other products into clothing. Prada recently announced PradaReNylon, a partnership with the high-end company and yarn producer Aquafil, which recycles plastic waste collected from oceans, fishing nets, and textile fiber waste. They hope that all of their nylon will be made from recycled by 2021. Burberry recently announced that they would be cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in a move to become carbon neutral by 2022. Even longtime industry icons like Chanel and Gucci have joined the fold; Chanel recently invested in a green chemistry company called Evolved by Nature, which is a startup that specializes in the silk industry. Using environmentally conscious production methods, Chanel hopes to adopt a more sustainable approach, such as using ActivatedSilk™, which creates textiles that don’t harm the environment. Gucci has become transparent by launching digital platform for Environmental Profit & Loss (EP&L), which allows access to information about the business and its relationship with natural resources. The company’s goal is to ensure that 100 percent of its raw materials are traceable to source by 2025.

If you’d like to do your part by donating used denim or sponsoring a collection in your community, visit the Blue Jeans Go Green™ website, where you’ll find lots of great information, links, and astounding facts. They may have been your favorite jeans with good memories, but they can now keep a family comfortable and safe so that they can make good memories, too.