ImagesMagUK_May_2021

www.images-magazine.com MAY 2021 images 45 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT made from the same fibre compositions, says Catherine. “In fact, these are the sort of products (uniforms, sports kits, promotional items) it would be great to be able to take back as they are often not suitable for the resale market and likely to end up in landfill or incineration; by collecting these products they can recycle them instead. B2B businesses would need to work with their business customers to encourage them to return items when they are no longer needed or usable by their customers or staff.” Marketing the scheme The guide offers advice on how to market schemes to customers, including offering incentives to return/donate items, either direct to the seller or to the organisation providing the recycling service. Some branded garments can prove a problem when it comes to donating them for reuse; instead, these can be recycled, explains Catherine. “If the Case study: Banana Moon Clothing In March this year, Banana Moon Clothing launched a scheme called Spring Greens with the aim of encouraging the recycling of clothes. Customers simply have to take a picture of them putting some unwanted clothes in a clothing bank or similar, and post the picture to Instagram with the hashtag #bmspringgreens. The customer is then given a discount code that gives them £5 off their next order over £20. Katherine Clayton, who is a design consultant at the West Yorkshire company and created the scheme, explains that over the past few years, Banana Moon has been looking at ways to make its business more sustainable, such as reducing waste, using less paper and introducing more environmentally friendly printing methods. It was while the office was being redesigned last year that Katherine noticed there were a number of garments that the company considered to be seconds, but were in a brand- new, useable condition. “This was the starting point for our recycling scheme,” she says. “We have looked into ways we can repurpose these garments to prevent them going into landfill, which is an on-going task of ours, but we wanted something that could be more immediate and begin making a difference sooner.” The initial idea was to ask customers to return unwanted garments in exchange for a voucher, but the cost of posting even just a couple of items would be a minimum of £3. “We needed to decide if that was something we should pay or the customer. As we were already offering the voucher, it seemed to make no financial sense to also cover the postage costs, but being realistic, we didn’t think our customers would or should have to pay it either. “At this stage, it seemed the idea would cost significantly more to us than the offer was worth, but we still wanted to move forward with it in some way. That’s when I had the idea of cutting out the return aspect, and getting our customers to do the donations themselves.” The scheme is currently at a trial stage, and is being promoted through social media, plus a business card (made from recycled paper) marketing the scheme was added to all orders in March and April. “Whether the Spring Greens promotion is a success or not, we will continue with our sustainability drive, this is just the beginning,” Katherine declares. “We are currently testing ideas of how to repurpose our own unused stock with the aim of selling or donating. We have also recently embroidered a design to the left breast of 20 hoodies that were seconds, which will be distributed to homeless people in Leeds. We are also in talks with local charities to create more sustainable uniforms for them by repurposing clothing. “Although we are not expecting the schemes to financially benefit the business, we are keen to show we are serious in our efforts to become a more sustainable company overall and the process can be followed on our social media. The company started in 1993 as a small family business with great values and morals, and it is very important to us that as the business continues to grow, we don’t lose sight of these.” www.banana-moon-clothing.co.uk The Spring Greens scheme from Banana Moon allows customers £5 off their next order products cannot be resold in the UK due to branding it is unlikely that they will be able to be reused due to legal reasons. By collecting these garments through a take-back scheme, partnerships can be established with recyclers to recycle these products, diverting them from landfill or incineration.” For those still wondering whether it’s worth setting up a scheme, Catherine has this advice: “The government has just released the Waste Prevention Programme for England, which has highlighted textiles as one of the waste streams that will be consulted on for an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme by 2022. An EPR scheme could make producers of textile products responsible for their products at the end of life, so we would encourage all businesses to start looking at how they can address this issue to be prepared for possible policy changes.” www.wrap.org.uk providers, partnering with a commercial collector or a charity to create an in-store garment collection might be the best option. Those selling online can take advantage of the various textile recycling apps available, such as reGain and Thrift+. And in the Netherlands, Dutch workwear brand aWEARness uses a lease model to ensure its products are returned and the materials recovered. Commercial or charity organisations collecting the garments will then separate them into those good enough to be resold, those to be reused to make items such as cleaning cloths, and those to be recycled. Take-back schemes are definitely possible for businesses such as garment decorators where they are producing a large volume of generic garments that are