The greatest threat to our planet is the
belief that someone else will save it
(Robert Swan)
Your clothes deserve their own bin!
No Bueno!
Multi-family buildings were responsible for sending more than
1 million lbs. of clothing and fabrics to the region’s landfill in 2018
Waste not thy pants 🙂
It takes around 7000 litres of water to make one pair of jeans!
Give your old clothes a new life
Clothing: not junk, don’t dump
100 million lbs. of textiles end up in the Vancouver landfill every year
Let’s make a dent in that
Worthwhile Effort
70% of the world use second hand clothes and the CO2 savings from the recycling and management of textile waste is second only to aluminum
Previous
Next
who we are
what we do

revivify textiles

High-rise residents constantly face the challenge of conveniently recycling clothing in their dwellings in an urban setting. Clothing drop off bins are few and far between in dense urban areas, therefore discarding textiles either require the resident to spend time, energy, and fuel to search for and find a bin and usually drive to it to drop them off or they just end up in the garbage bin.  45,000 tonnes of textiles ended up in the Metro Vancouver landfill in 2018.

Being both condo residents and strata council members, we have carefully planned our textile recycling program with the best interest of the residents and strata corporations in mind.

By having our bins your building can now recycle clothing and fabrics as easy as recycling cans and newspapers. As Metro Vancouver implements its green initiatives, you can get ahead of the curve by joining the lighter living movement.
how it works

1

Have your council member, strata manager, or rental company contact us to order an indoor bin

The bin provided will be similar to the size of your regular 95 gallon recycling bins, but different in colour and clearly labeled.

2

We will send them a contract to sign and then schedule the bin delivery and picking up the fob/key for access

3

Pick up will be scheduled once a week and adjusted according to the volume

4

If a bin is overflowing between pickups call or text us using the number on the bin and we’ll service your bin within 2 business days Each Bin has contact information clearly labelled on it for requesting off-schedule pickup when the bin is full.
revivify textile recycling features

Convenient INDOOR bin

FREE of charge

Regular bin SERVICING

Off schedule pickup on REQUEST

Designed for multifamily BUILDINGS

Supports mentoring programs for LOCAL YOUTH

Customized signage DESIGN

Annual diversion REPORT

request a bin

Reduce Reuse Recycle Revivify 🙂

Request a bin by clicking on the button below. Click here to see how it works.

faq
Why should I recycle?
Textiles leave a very large environmental footprint due to their water and chemical intensive production processes and sometimes harm agricultural. Preventing them from ending up in the landfill helps preserve natural resources, cut pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also helps us progress towards our goal of being the greenest city and becoming a zero-waste region.
What types of items can I drop in the Revivify bin?

● All types of clothing including under garments, nylons, and socks
● Outerwear, jackets, gloves, scarves, hats and coats
● Belts, bags, purses, wallets, backpacks, shoes and boots
● Linens, bedding, towels, tablecloth and curtains of all sizes
● Blankets, beddings, and pillows
● Soft toys and stuffed animals

What types of items doesn’t Revivify accept?

● Wet, moldy or dirty items
● Carpets, mats, rugs
● Electronics
● Furniture and appliances
● Beds and mattresses

What happens to the clothing and textiles that are collected from the bins?

Our charity partner delivers the collected items to a recycling facility and receives compensation on a per/pound basis. The facility manually sorts the items into different categories and grades: re-usable as second-hand clothing, pure natural fibers for making jeans, scrap that will be shredded for low grade fiber products, wiping rags, and a very small portion (roughly 2%) ends up in the landfill. Part the of the sorted items is sold locally and the remainder is shipped to recycling facilities and emerging markets throughout the world. This is the typical lifecycle for all recycled textiles in our region.

Textiles leave a very large environmental footprint due to their water and chemical intensive production processes and sometimes harm agricultural. Preventing them from ending up in the landfill helps preserve natural resources, cut pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also helps us progress towards our goal of being the greenest city and becoming a zero-waste region.

● All types of clothing including under garments, nylons, and socks
● Outerwear, jackets, gloves, scarves, hats and coats
● Belts, bags, purses, wallets, backpacks, shoes and boots
● Linens, bedding, towels, tablecloth and curtains of all sizes
● Blankets, beddings, and pillows
● Soft toys and stuff animals

● Wet, moldy or dirty items
● Carpets, mats, rugs
● Electronics
● Furniture and appliances
● Beds and mattresses

Our charity partner delivers the collected items to a recycling facility and receives compensation on a per-pound basis. The facility manually sorts the items into different categories and grades: re-usable as second-hand clothing, pure natural fibers for making jeans, scrap that will be shredded for low grade fiber products, wiping rags, and a very small portion (roughly 2%) ends up in the landfill. Some of the sorted items are sold locally and the remainder is shipped to recycling facilities and emerging markets throughout the world. This is the typical lifecycle of discarded household textiles in our region.

Is Revivify a non-profit organization?
Revivify is a socially and environmentally conscious incorporated for-profit organization. We get a small portion of the proceeds from Revivify Textiles and the majority ends up with our charity partner, the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver.
Is this somehow tax deductible?

We cannot provide tax receipts since we are not a charity though not even charities can give tax receipts for textiles!

Does the Revivify program only exist in Metro Vancouver City proper?

Yes, though we currently are able to service all of the Metro Vancouver region.

What are the costs of implementing a clothing recycling program in my building?

Currently we are providing the bin and service free of charge to qualifying buildings for the duration of their contract. Should you want us to also pickup household items, we charge a small fee only for that service.

Will Revivify come to my home for a pick up?

Unfortunately not, though we do have a project in the works that could make this happen. Stay tuned!

Revivify is a socially and environmentally conscious incorporated for-profit organization. We get a small portion of the proceeds from Revivify Textiles and the majority ends up with our charity partner, the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver.

We cannot provide tax receipts since we are not a charity though not even charities can give tax receipts for textiles!

Yes, though we currently are able to service all of the Metro Vancouver region.

Currently we are providing the bin and service free of charge to qualifying buildings for the duration of their contract. Should you want us to also pickup household items, we charge a small fee only for that service.

Not yet, though we do have a project in the works that would make this happen. Stay tuned!

facts
Does anyone throw out clothing?

54% of respondents to a north American survey said they throw out clothing instead of recycling them.

Why bother with textiles now that we are already recycling paper, glass, and composting food?

There are huge environmental benefits in preventing textiles from ending up in the landfill. A 2015 European study showed that for every unit of avoided production for textiles more than 21 units of CO2 emissions are prevented from being released into the atmosphere. This is higher than any other material with aluminum coming second at 13 units of CO2e avoided per unit of aluminum not being produced. Avoided production of paper, glass, and food result in respectively 1, 1, and 4 units carbon emission reduction per unit of material. Textiles also carry a very large water and energy footprint.

Give me an idea of how much water is used to make T-shirt?

700 gallons (2650 litres) of water is used to make one new cotton T-shirt

What about Jeans?

1800 gallons of water (6800 litres) and 111 Kw.h of electricity is consumed to make one new pair of jeans. In case you were wondering, that’s the amount of electricity needed to keep a 13 watt CFL lamp burning for a full year and the total amount of water used by a person in Bangladesh in 140 days!

54% of respondents to a north American survey said they throw out clothing instead of recycling them.

There are huge environmental benefits in preventing textiles from ending up in the landfill. A 2015 European study showed that for every unit of avoided production for textiles more than 21 units of CO2 emissions are prevented from being released into the atmosphere. This is higher than any other material with aluminum coming second at 13 units of CO2e avoided per unit of aluminum not being produced. Avoided production of paper, glass, and food result in respectively 1, 1, and 4 units carbon emission reduction per unit of material. Textiles also carry a very large water and energy footprint.

700 gallons (2650 litres) of water is used to make one new cotton T-shirt

1800 gallons of water (6800 litres) and 111 Kw.h of electricity is consumed to make one new pair of jeans. In case you were wondering, that’s the amount of electricity needed to keep a 13 watt CFL lamp burning for a full year and the total amount of water used by a person in Bangladesh in 140 days!

What are the waste goals for our region?
  • Metro Vancouver ’s ambitious goal was diverting 80% waste from the landfill by the year 2020
  • City of Vancouver’s goal for 2020 was to reduce solid waste from going to the landfill or incinerator by 50% from 2008 levels
  • Vancouver also aims to be a zero-waste city by 2040
Give me some Metro Vancouver numbers, how much textiles actually end up in our landfill?

Each year about 30,000 tonnes of
clothing and fabrics
end up in Metro Vancouver landfills. Of this amount the share of multi-family buildings
in 2018 alone was roughly 1 million lbs

How about some quick facts for Canada?

. If everyone in Canada bought one reclaimed woolen garment each year, it would save an
average of 271 million gallons of water
. Every year Canadians buy 1,066,000 tonnes of clothes, 50% of which ends up in a landfill
which is about 35lbs per person
. Only 24% of the 1 million tonnes of clothes that we buy gets recycled
with the remainder
going into landfills and incinerators

  • Metro Vancouver ’s ambitious goal was diverting 80% waste from the landfill by the year 2020
  • City of Vancouver’s goal for 2020 was to reduce solid waste going to the landfill or incinerator by 50% from 2008 levels
  • Vancouver also aims to be a zero waste city by 2040

Each year about 30,000 tonnes of clothing and fabrics end up in Metro Vancouver landfills. Of this amount the share of multi-family buildings in 2018 alone was roughly 1 million lbs

  • If everyone in Canada bought one reclaimed woolen garment each year, it would save an average of 271 million gallons of water
  • Every year Canadians buy 1,066,000 tonnes of clothes, 50% of which ends up in a landfill which is about 35lbs per person
  • Only 24% of the 1 million tonnes of clothes that we buy gets recycled with the remainder going into landfills and incinerators
news
News

What Is Textile Recycling?

By Rick Leblanc – www.thebalancesmb.com The basis for the growing textile recycling industry is, of

contact

#1101-288 West 1st Ave Vancouver, BC, V5Y 0E9 

Revivify

Request a Bin

The Environmental Impact of Textiles

The environmental impact of textiles varies significantly depending on the type of fiber the item is made from and typically include the following categories:

• energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nutrients releases (leading to eutrophication) and ecotoxicity from lifetime washing (water heating and detergents) and production dying of textiles

• energy use, resource depletion and GHG emissions from processing fossil fuels into synthetic fibers, e.g. polyester or nylon

• significant water use, toxicity from fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide use, energy use and GHG emissions associated with fertilizer generation and irrigation systems related to production of fiber crops, e.g. cotton

• water use, toxicity, hazardous waste and effluent associated with the production stage, including pre-treatment chemicals, dyes and finishes
A considerable share of the environmental impact of textiles occur during usage.
For example, the majority of the energy consumed in the life-cycle of cotton garments happens after purchase and during the many washing and drying cycles at high temperatures (40-80%). The next biggest factor impacting the environmental foot print is the choice of fiber.
Synthetic fibers require more energy to produce and have relatively high carbon footprint. Wool also results in comparatively high GHG emissions due to methane emissions from sheep. Plant fibers have relatively low carbon emissions from production. Linen has a smaller footprint because of its fairly low need for pesticides, fertilizers and irrigation.


Revivify is a Canadian owned and operated socially and environmentally conscious start-up company based out of Vancouver BC, formed to promote and facilitate the practical and scalable implementation of the circular economy.

Main Menu