Common Threads Initiative

Recycling is what we do when we’re out of options to avoid, repair, or reuse the product first. That’s why I am so impressed with Patagonia for starting its Common Threads Initiative with the real solution: Reduce. Don’t buy what we don’t need. Repair: Fix stuff that still has life in it. Reuse: Share. Then, only when you’ve exhausted those options, recycle. – Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff

There’s a reason that ‘recycling’ comes last in the mantra: Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle.

Reduce

We design and sell things made to last and to be useful. But we ask our customers not to buy from us what you don’t need or can’t really use. Everything we make – everything anyone makes – costs the planet more life than it gives back. The biggest, first step we can all take to reduce our impact is to do more with what we have. Much of the energy consumed over the course of the life of a garment – about half – goes not into laundering, ironing and drying, activities that shorten the life of your clothes as much as wearing them does. Check out our Patagonia Care Guide for tips on cleaning and care to extend the life of your garment.

Repair

What we have should be things we can repair. If you have the skills to turn a frayed collar or darn the worn heel of a sock, good for you. For our part, we should make clothes that wear out as evenly as possible and repair quickly what you send back to us to be fixed. Our policy is to get repairs unpacked, done and back in the mail to you within 14 business days.

We pay for repairs that we’re responsible for and charge a fair price for repairs due to normal wear and tear. In addition, many of our stores have relationships with local tailors capable of working on our clothes.

Reuse

Nothing wearable should be hoarded; useful things should be in circulation. Reuse what you no longer need, whether you’ve given up climbing or no longer wear brown. Donate unused clothes to a charity. We donate our own factory seconds to activists working in the field and send some of last season’s unsold goods to people who lose their belongings in disasters. Also check your local Patagonia store for swap meet events.

Recycle

Everything natural or manufactured comes to the end of its life. Everything natural gives life to something new, so should the things we make. Whatever you’ve bought from Patagonia that’s finally worn-out, you can return to us, so that we can recycle it into new fiber or fabric (or repurpose what can’t yet be recycled).

Since 2005, we’ve taken back 45 tons of clothing for recycling and made 34 tons into new clothes – thanks to our customers who have become partners.

Reimagine

Two-thirds of our economy is based on the purchase of consumer goods. But to blindly purchase what’s good neither for the planet nor ourselves to keep the game going is the very definition of unsustainability. Let’s buy what’s healthy and useful; let’s stay away from what we don’t need and what causes unnecessary harm. Every action we take together to protect the land and waters we love adds to our knowledge and confidence that we can reimagine, then help bring about, a sustainable world for those who come after us.

Background Photo: by Tim Davis. Patagonia volunteers pulling fences, Conservacion Patagonica, Valle Chacabuco, Chile