Rab to take down recycling to Europe next year
05/12/2023
The scheme, which started with a single down bin at its head office two years ago, is facilitated by Rab’s partnership with Italy-based down processor Minardi Piume. Down jackets, duvets, pillows and sleeping bags are all eligible for processing into Global Recycled Standard-approved material, whereas fabric fibres and trims are repurposed separately. Some of this down later makes it into the brand’s recycled down lines, identifiable via the “material facts tables” it began to use earlier this year.
Over on the European mainland, Rab’s European Service Centre in Leusden, the Netherlands, will serve as the main handling hub for post-consumer down collected in collaboration with various local retailers. Articles that have not reached end of life may also be shipped to the centre for cleaning or repair, to elongate their lifespan. The business included a down drop-off point at its booth at ISPO Munich in late November.
By the close of 2022, the company's down recycling programme had recycled and repurposed 54 kilograms of down. Rab expects “a substantial increase” in collections by year’s end, it said, and estimates that it will have accepted an additional 200 kilograms of reusable down and feathers for processing by this time.
Rab’s down collection point at ISPO in November. Credit: Rab.
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