Black Friday: Isle of Wight business reusing to save planet

Teemill, the world’s biggest dedicated circular economy platform, based in Freshwater, is working with its community of 10,000 stores to ask customers to send back Teemill-made clothing they no longer wear as part of its #TakeBackFriday campaign 

Teemill sets up virtual shops for users – from global organisations such as WWF, Greenpeace, and BBC Earth, to brands, influencers, artists, and content creators to sell branded clothing.

When a customer returns products are used to make new products using Teemill’s innovative Remill technology.

Mart Drake-Knight inspecting the company's Indian manufacturing facility. (Image: Teemill)

Scroll down to see how Teemill works

Customers will be rewarded with £5 credit to spend on future purchases of circular economy products that have been designed to keep materials in the loop and out of landfill.

A spokesperson for Teemill said: "Currently, less than one per cent of the world’s clothes are made back into new clothes once they are worn out.

"Teemill was designed to solve that crisis by creating an open-access circular economy supply chain that could be used by anyone in the world."

To date, Teemill has diverted 30,000kg of organic cotton from landfill, avoiding one million kg of carbon dioxide emissions, and saving 586 million litres of water.

Its goal is to take 100 million items back around the loop by 2027.

Read more: Red Funnel launches Black Friday sale

Read more: When England skipper Harry Kane wore a Teemill T-shirt

The spokesperson said: "We need as many people to help as possible, so this Black Friday we are encouraging people to look in their wardrobes and turn worn out products back into store credit and useful material."

Teemill co-founder Mart Drake-Knight said: “Black Friday is a symptom of how waste has been woven into the way our world works.

"Products have been designed to be thrown away, meaning the only way to create growth is make and sell more products and create more waste. It fuels climate change and destroys nature."

To send back items visit remillfibre.com

Isle of Wight Council combats Black Friday waste glut

With Black Friday being followed by the spending frenzy of Cyber Monday, the Isle of Wight Council is asking us to reduce waste and contamination, by:

• recycling cardboard that is clean and not contaminated by food grease;  

• put all polystyrene, bubble wrap and sticky tape in your black bin/reusable sack;   

If you have lots of extra clean cardboard, we can recycle it to make more cardboard!

Simply:  

• remove polystyrene, bubble wrap and sticky tape first. Place that in black bin/reusable sack);  
• bundle cardboard together and put it next to your green bin or reusable sack.  

The council says polystyrene can also be taken to either Lynnbottom or Afton Marsh Household Recycling Centres for disposal.  

It also suggests buying local to support our Island as buying from Island businesses reduces harmful carbon dioxide emissions, saves on postage, supports the community and produces less waste.   

If you often have large amounts of extra recycling, you can order an extra green recycling bin for free by visiting: www.iow.gov.uk/waste or by calling (01983) 823777.