Penneys wants your old clothes

When in doubt, don’t throw it out!

Penneys is now giving pre-loved clothes and textiles a second lease on life with its brand new recycling scheme. The Penneys Textile Takeback scheme encourages customers to pack up all their old gear and bring into any one of the 36 stores nationwide where it can be recycled, re-worn or reimagined.

The scheme comes as new research into Irish consumers’ recycling behaviour found that 79 per cent of people are more likely to donate old clothes if they could bring them to a nearby store.

The research, conducted by RED C Research and Marketing, also found that almost a quarter of shoppers didn’t even know that clothing and footwear could be recycled in the first place. The scheme accepts clothing, footwear, bags and even some textiles such as towels and bedsheets, from any brand in any condition via the new collection boxes in stores.

Damien O’Neill, Head of Sales at Penneys, said: “While it was very encouraging to see how many people already donate their pre-loved clothes and footwear, we’ve learned that there is still more to do to help educate customers about what can be recycled and where.”

Penneys will work with its recycling partner Yellow Octopus, which has a ‘no landfill’ policy across the 21 countries it operates in, diverting around one million garments from landfill every month.

The company aims for as many donations as possible to be worn again, with the remainder being repurposed into new products such as insulation, toy stuffing and mattress fillers.