Consumer guide

Take-back of clothing

Some companies actually want you to return your used clothing, and may even give you a premium to do so.

When our clothes become worn and unfashionable, we throw them away. From an environmental perspective it seems that the best thing to do is to recycle them, either by giving them to the appropriate organization or to sort and reuse the clothes for e.g. production of yarn, cotton waste, mattresses etc. However, there may also be problems with sending them to the Salvation Army or others for reuse since the clothes will eventually end up as waste somewhere in the world and it might be in a place with no incineration facilities where the waste will end up in landfills.

The twist was that those who brought in items they wanted to get rid of, had to write down the history of the piece of clothing

Some major companies and chains have begun actively to collect clothes they sell, some in cooperation with charity foundations (Marks & Spencer and OxFam in Britain have an arrangement where if you hand in used clothing to the latter, the former gives you a premium towards a new purchase). The American sports-company Patagonia has another type of ambition; they want to collect all the clothes they sell themselves in order to actually recycle them and put them back in a closed-loop system. 

Other companies would see that you actually bring them back the clothes for repair, up-grading or restyling; which is both an old-fashion and a new way of thinking. In the old days, the tailor would upgrade the outfit, repair what was worn out and make sure an outfit lasted much longer than just one season. These are thoughts being brought back "in style". Now that vintage and third-hand has become popular, these are other ways of giving clothes a longer life. We also like to mention theSwedish designer Otto von Busch, who did an experiment where he opened a second-hand store. But the twist was that those who brought in items they wanted to get rid of, had to write down the history of the piece of clothing, why they had bought it and things they had experienced wearing the piece of clothing, Most people left the store with what they had brought in.