RECYCLE CLOTHES, SHOES, & TEXTILES IN YOUR BUILDING

An Essential Amenity That Helps Your Residents, Vancouver, and The World

We work with strata councils, property management companies, and property developers to provide a textile recycling program that allows residents to easily recycle clothing, linen, and shoes much like containers, paper, organics, and other recycling materials without leaving your building. The service is designed to keep millions of pounds of textiles out of landfills and reduce the environmental impact and lessen the carbon footprint of dumping textiles or driving to find drop off locations.

We Give Old Clothes New Life

Most of the 66 million lbs/year of textiles that end up in the Metro Vancouver landfill could be recycled.

Waste Not Thy Pants!!

It takes around 7000 litres of water to make one pair of jeans.  Think about that!

Fabrics:  Not Junk, Don’t Dump!

Many people still throw out clothing rather than taking the time to recycle them.

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 to drop them off.  Without convenience, they just end up in the garbage bin contributing to the 30,000 tonnes of textiles that end up in the waste every year in Metro Vancouver.
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WHAT WE DO

The Service and Our Commitment:

  • Clearly labelled textile recycling bins
  • Regular pick-up service
  • Promotional materials to notify residents of the new recycling option
  • Professional, reliable, and honest service
  • Regular bin maintenance on an optimized schedule
  • Off-schedule bin emptying within 48 hrs of request
  • A bi-annual diversion certificate to demonstrate the amount and environmental impact of textiles kept out of the landfill by residents
  • Socially and environmentally responsible business practices
  • All the above provided free of charge for the full duration of our contract with you
Why Participate?

  • Make it easier and more convenient for your residents to recycle textiles
  • Divert recyclable textiles from landfills
  • Be well prepared for the upcoming Metro Vancouver textile ban
  • Make a clear statement about your commitment to sustainability
  • Play your part in making Vancouver the “Greenest City” by 2020

How Does It Work?

  1. Contact us to order a bin.
  2. If your building qualifies, we meet and schedule the bin delivery.
  3. Pick up will be scheduled based on volume.
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REQUEST A BIN

Request a bin using the form below. If your building(s) qualifies, we’ll schedule a meeting and site visit to further assess the needs and status of your building, answer all your questions, and schedule a bin delivery to begin the service.

8 + 5 =

WHO WE ARE

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. Revivify aims to lay the foundation for a sustainable and practical future for our planet inspired by the circular concepts of nature in the form of applied and scalable projects by integrating disruption, design, innovation, technology, and opportunity.

In addition to economic profitability Revivify aims to achieve a net positive social/environmental impact in all of its projects and operations by minimizing environmental footprints, creating low-barrier employment opportunities, and aiding in the training and integration of refugees through its diverse project portfolio. Examples of current projects are giving new life to discarded items through restoration and up-cycling, re-manufacturing bins from used material to replace virgin plastic bins, and designing smart bins for enhanced efficiency in time, fuel use, and number of trips.

Since being established in 1978, the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver has supported thousands of children and youth in Greater Vancouver through prevention-based mentoring programs. Mentoring has proven to curb issues like bullying and crime, so that children can grow into more resilient, more giving, and more compassionate adults.

BBGV and Revivify have formed a strong and synergistic partnership to advance their mutual values and goals. The majority of the revenue from Revivify Textiles is earmarked for supporting Big Brothers’ programs for local kids.

FAQ's & FACTS

FAQ’s

Why should I recycle?
Textiles leave a very large environmental footprint due to their water and chemical intensive production processes and sometimes harmful agricultural practises. Preventing them from ending up in the landfill helps preserve natural resources, cuts pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also helps us get to our goal of being the greenest city by 2020 and becoming a zero-waste region.
Why type of items does Revivify accept?
  • Shirts, pants, 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
What types of items doesn't Revivify accept?
  • Wet, moldy or dirty items
  • Carpets, mats, and rugs
  • Electronics
  • Furniture and appliances
  • Beds and mattresses
What happens to all textiles that are collected?
Our charity partner delivers the collected items to a recycling facility. The facility manually sorts the items into different categories and grades: Re-usable as second-hand clothing, pure natural fibers for making jeans, scrap material 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.
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.
What are the costs of implementing a clothing recycling program in my building?
Currently we are providing the bin and service free of cost 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.
Is donating textiles tax deductible?
We cannot provide tax receipts since we are not a charity though not even charities can give tax receipts for textiles.

FACTS

Does anyone really throw out textiles?
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 organics?
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 avoided production of aluminum.  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.
How much water does it takes to make one t-shirt?
700 gallons (2650 litres) of water is used to make one new cotton t-shirt.
How much water and electricity does it take to make one pair of 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 fluorescent lamp burning for one full year.  It is also the amount of water used in 140 days by a person in Bangladesh.
What are the waste goals for our region?
Metro Vancouver has an ambitious goal of diverting 80% waste from the landfill by the year 2020.

City of Vancouver’s goal for 2020 is to reduce solid waste going to the landfill or incinerator by 50% from 2008 levels and to become a zero-waste city by 2040.

How much textiles actually end up in our landfills?
It’s hard to believe, but each year about 30,000 tonnes of textiles end up in Metro Vancouver landfills. Of this amount the share of multi-family buildings is roughly 13 million lbs/year which is about 36,000 pounds everyday!

CONTACT US

REDUCE – REUSE – RECYCLE – REVIVIFY!

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

EMAIL US

info@re-vivify.com

PHONE

604.780.4812

FACEBOOK

@RevivifyBC