Landfills Shouldn't Be Laundry Piles

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 22, 2016 /CNW/ -- This Earth Day Value Village, a global thrift retailer, is urging people to rethink their clothing footprint through the company's Rethink Reuse Campaign. The campaign kicked off at Eco Fashion Week in Vancouver and will continue into the summer with an installation and reuse roundtable in Toronto.

For Earth Day Value Village produced a larger-than-life Rethink Reuse installation that served as a visually arresting wakeup call to remind everyone that landfills shouldn't be laundry piles and encouraged people to rethink reuse. The initial installation took place in Seattle, Washington, with plans to display a similar installation later this year in Toronto. With North Americans throwing away more than 10.5 million tons of clothing annually, 95 percent of which could have been reused or recycled[1], Value Village felt compelled to call attention to this issue.  

"At Value Village, reuse is in our DNA. It's who we are and how we operate, but not everyone considers reuse an option for their used clothing and household goods. With the growing amount of clothing and textile waste ending up in landfills, we felt compelled to act," said Ken Alterman, president and CEO of Value Village. "We want to help people better understand the environmental impact of their clothing waste and the steps they can take to reduce it. That's why we are calling on everyone to rethink reuse – shopping thrift, donating used items to a nonprofit and consuming goods in a more sustainable way."

Value Village believes that landfills shouldn't be laundry piles. That's why for more than 60 years, Value Village has been purchasing used clothing and textiles from nonprofit organizations and giving them a second, or third, life in its stores or through its recycling partners. Value Village is on a mission to create a better world through reuse by inspiring local communities to rethink reuse.

"Eighty-five percent of clothing waste ends up in landfills, with only 15 percent being reused or recycled," said Secondary Materials and Recycle Textiles Association (SMART) president Eric Stubin. "We applaud Value Village for calling attention to the issue of clothing waste. Companies like Value Village help give clothing and textiles another life through recycling and reuse – diverting millions of tons of clothing and textiles from landfills each year."

Through its unique business model and commitment to reuse, Value Village has become one of the leading recyclers of used textiles in the world, keeping nearly 650 million pounds of reusable items out of North American landfills each year.

Suggested Tweets:

• Landfills shouldn't be laundry piles. Learn about the impact of clothing w/ @SaversVVillage: www.rethinkreuse.ca #RethinkReuse #EarthDay
• #DYK It takes over 700 gallons of water to make 1 new cotton T-shirt! #RethinkReuse w/ @SaversVVillage. www.rethinkreuse.ca 

To see photos of the installation and join the conversation, follow along on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #RethinkReuse. For more information about Value Village and its commitment to reuse, visit www.rethinkreuse.ca

About Value Village
Value Village is a for-profit privately held global thrift retailer offering clothing and accessories for men, women and children and household goods. Through its unique business model of purchasing, reselling and recycling secondhand merchandise, the Value Village family of thrift stores benefits more than 120 nonprofit organizations, gives local consumers a smart way to shop and saves 650 million pounds of quality used goods from landfills each year. Value Village pays its nonprofit partners for donated goods, turning otherwise unused items into sustainable funding that supports their vital community programs and services. Savers operates nearly 330 locations and has 22,000 employees in Canada, the United States and Australia. For more information, please visit www.valuevillage.com. 

[1] U.S. EPA, Advancing Sustainable Materials Management 2013 Fact Sheet; Council for Textile Recycling 

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160422/358725LOGO

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160422/358730

SOURCE Value Village

For more information, contact Value Village's Director of Communication, Sara Guagl, [email protected], http://www.valuevillage.com