Fashion companies send damaged goods to Cascade Locks for recycling

(JANUARY 21, 2022) What happens when a clothing company has products with problems? What happens when a new shirt has a hole? What happens when a new pair of pants has a rip? Stores cannot sell these things. But they don't want to throw them in the garbage either.

Now a company in Cascade Locks works with big fashion companies to recycle their discards.

The Renewal Workshop accepts products with problems. The products come from famous brands like New Balance, The North Face, and Carhartt. The Renewal Workshop cleans and repairs the clothing. Then it resells the clothing at a discount. If it can't fix the clothing, then the company recycles the materials.

Workers also give feedback to the clothing companies. The workers suggest how to avoid these problems in the future. That is another way to reduce waste.

Jeff Denby and Nicole Bassett created the company in 2015. They wanted to keep clothing out of the landfill. They thought they would help to protect the environment while also making money. They opened a second factory in Amsterdam in 2019.

“It is unique for brands to allow someone else to fix their products,” Bassett said. “We invested a lot into developing repair standards so that brands could feel confident in the quality of the work we do so that they can stand behind their products being sold as renewed.”