- UNIQLO Sustainability TOP
- REFUGEES AND OTHERS IN NEED
- UNIQLO RECYCLE
At UNIQLO, we do more than simply produce truly great clothing for our customers. We believe that it is also our responsibility to follow-through by later collecting these products and to give them new purpose. To that end, UNIQLO started the All Product Recycling Initiative in 2006. To date, we have collected over 65.94 million pieces of UNIQLO clothing from our customers in our stores and given them a second life by delivering them directly to people in need all over the world, 65 countries in fact (as of August 2017). We started the project thinking that we would just recycle the collected items as fiber for industrial re-use, however, it turned out that most of the clothing was still in wearable condition and still had the power to provide the comfort, warmth and confidence that it did when it was new.
UNIQLO's ultimate goal is to provide clothing that meets the demands of every single person – regardless of what their situation is and where they might be. Through the All-Product Recycling Initiative, we have disturbed clothing in over 50 countries, from local city-based projects in San Francisco touching a few hundred people to efforts supplying clothing to hundreds of thousands of people in Jordan. From on-going efforts in refugee camps and homeless shelters to timely disaster response, we are able to share the power of clothing thanks to the support of our customers.
India / Myanmar / Rwanda / Uganda / Thailand / China / Jordan / Philippines
In the United States, just as everywhere else we act, the All-Product Recycling initiative relies on the support of staff volunteers working in tandem with local municipalities and non-profit organizations. In San Francisco, where we opened our UNION SQUARE store in October 2012, we have partnered with the San Francisco arm of Saint Vincent de Paul, a non-profit organization known for its well organized, grass roots support of people in need. Through their Wellness Center and Help Desk in downtown San Francisco we distribute clothing directly to people in need who visit the location to get clothing and other necessary items that support them as they work to re-enter mainstream society and recover from personal issues.
In New York City, we work closely with the New York City Department of Homeless Services with whom we conduct regular distribution events at local family shelters that house people who for one reason on another have been temporarily displaced from regular housing situations. As we expand to other cities in the United States, we make local connections with similar agencies to deliver clothing collected from our customers directly to people in need in a humane and efficient manner.
In San Francisco our partner is Saint Vincent de Paul. We provide their Help Desk in downtown San Francisco with regular shipments of recycled clothing. We also volunteer to help make sure that clients get the clothing they need and that fits and to get a better understanding of how even something as humble as a pair of pants, can make a big difference to someone. The Help Desk serves about 10,000 people a year with life supporting items.
At this shelter in the Bronx, UNIQLO volunteers set-up a virtual store to make the donation process as warm and meaningful as possible to the residents. There was a dedicated section for much-needed outerwear, pants and pre-sorted bags with tops by size to make sure people received items with high utility.
Children make up a majority of the residents at family shelters and we are always happy when we can provide them with useful clothing, especially warm coats for the winter. At this particular distribution in Brooklyn, we also held a t-shirt making workshop for the kids that they really enjoyed.
All you need to do is drop off your clean, gently used UNIQLO clothing at any UNIQLO store in the designated RECYCLE BOX, often located near the check-out area. Or, even easier, just give your donation to any UNIQLO staff member and they will take care of it for you. THANK YOU!
Our Local and Global Partners:
