Startup Brands Like The Shoe Company Thousand Fell are Bringing Circular Economics to the Fashion Industry
TerraCycle Include USA Thousand FellThousand Fell, the environmentally conscious, direct-to-consumer shoe retailer that launched last November, has revealed the details of the recycling program that’s a core component of its pitch to consumers. The company, which has now sold enough shoes to start seeing its early buyers begin recycling them after 10 months of ownership, expects to recycle roughly 3,000 pairs per quarter by 2021, with the capacity to scale up to 6,000 pairs of shoes. The recycling feature, through partnerships with United Parcel Service and TerraCycle, offers customers the option to avoid simply throwing out the shoes for $20 in cash that the company pays out upon receipt of the old shoes.
With the initiative, Thousand Fell joins a growing number of companies in consumer retail that are experimenting with various strategies to incorporate reuse into the life cycle of their products. Nike operates a “reuse-a-shoe” program at some of its stores, which collects used athletic shoes from any brand for recycling. Several companies are offering denim recycling drop-off locations to take old jeans and convert the material into other products.