Imagine the irony! In their heyday the Manchester Mills were the manufacturing center of textiles in the Northeast and beyond. Today, a Manchester native, Joe Whitten, along with his family’s veteran owned and operated business has a mission to do just the opposite. Rather than produce an endless waste stream of cast off clothing he wants to reduce and/or divert it from landfills. Now in its tenth year with 1,800 locations in 6 states with 45 employees and 1,400 partners and customers, Apparel Impact will divert almost 22 million pounds this year.
Clothing is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the industry and causes CO2 emissions, overuse of water resources and takes up landfill space. Though 70-80% of clothing is reusable 85% ends up in landfills. Mr. Whitten’s idea was to ‘start a textile recovery company that reduced local landfill waste, created good paying jobs and did something good for those in need’.
Apparel Impact’s top priority is reuse. They collaborate with clothing graders, non profit thrift stores, consignment shops and vintage clothing stores for items in good condition.(This accounts for almost 80% of all clothing diverted from landfills).
Clothes in poor condition are shipped to clothing recyclers in the U.S. that create new clothing, shoes, bags, backpacks and countless other items in a process called upcycling. 5% of collected clothing is so damaged that it is downcycled into industrial wiping rags, insulation, emergency blankets, carpet and pet bed stuffing.
How does Apparel Impact divert more than 1,000 pounds of clothing, shoes and other accessories that end up daily in landfills in every American town? It hosts recycling bins free of charge to participating schools, companies and communities. Pick up is frequent and bins are ‘easy to use and hassle free’. In addition, towns receive reports on progress made in their sustainability goals. School personnel and residents are encouraged to request a ‘full wardrobe’ for anyone in need; T-shirts, pants, shoes whatever it takes. Schools receive comic books filled with superhuman characters designed to teach and promote textile recycling.
The concept of reducing clothing waste while conserving the environment and creating community has made it possible to establish a new paradigm. Apparel Impact has flipped the statistics – instead of 70% of clothing shipped overseas and becoming mountainous piles in deserts in Chile where it cannot be processed, 70% stays in the U.S. and in collaboration with NH companies creates new jobs and new products.
Joe Whitten started his company going door to door in Manchester to collect his neighbor’s old clothing (a version of the local ‘ragman’ of the 1950s) A ‘rags to riches’ story indeed, with a felicitous ending since the environment and our communities have benefited so greatly.
Ann Podlipny lives in Chester, NH, and is a member of NH Network Plastics Working Group.