Jeans are undoubtedly one of the most used garments in the world. Comfortable, resistant, always fashionable: each of us has at least a couple of them in the closet. And the story of how this fabric was born is truly compelling.

But what to do when jeans are starting to getting old? Obviously throwing them in general waste is not a good option for the environment.

There are indeed many ways to recycle old jeans. For example, you can cut and sew them to create something new or insert them in a regeneration process, such as the one we created in collaboration with NaturaSì, thanks to which we can collect old clothes to make a new sustainable yarn.

Would you like to know more? In this article you will discover how to recycle old jeans and where to bring them to be upcycled.

How to recycle old jeans

If you are using a size and sew, there are really a lot of ways you can recycle an old jeans. For example, you can cut them to make a pair of shorts, make pillowcases for the sofa or a bag or a pencil case. With many squares of jeans you can also create a beautiful patchwork carpet for your bedroom or living room.

If instead your old jeans starts to become a vintage garment, it could be interesting for someone else. You could therefore take it to a vintage market or give it to a friend who is passionate about the fashion of past years.

If, the previous options don't suit you and you would like to contribute to a circular economy project, here is what you can do: use the collection service that we offer at Rifò, through which we collect old clothes to create new ones.

Here's how it works.

The Rifò jeans collection service

For some time now we have launched an innovative collection service for old cashmere garments, which allows us to collect old clothes which are then upcycled.

Thanks to the collaboration with NaturaSì, we have recently added a new collection project relating to the collection of jeans: Re-think your jeans.

But what does it mean to upcycle?

Upcycling means giving new life to the textile waste, that is reduced into fiber and transformed into a new yarn, saving water and without using dyes again. Everything is in a perspective of circular economy with low environmental impact.

For example, through the fibers from old jeans, we have created new products such as upcycled denim cotton sweaters, available in various shades of blue made starting from the original color of the jeans.

Re-think your jeans project and the collaboration with NaturaSì

To give new life to old jeans, we have launched a new project: Re-Think your jeans, in collaboration with NaturaSì.

The initiative was born thanks to the owner of the NaturaSì stores in Prato, Pistoia, Parma and Lucca, who fell in love with our upcycled jeans sweater and contacted us to create a new collaborative circular economy project.

If you want to take advantage of our service and support it, just bring your old denim clothes to NaturaSì stores that adhere to Re-Think your jeans. In this way your old clothes will become part of the upcyclcing process. The other actors that made the initiative possible will deal with the following parts of the upcycling process:

• Recooper will select the clothes, which will be frayed and reduced to a fiber within the Prato textile district;
• The new material obtained will be transformed into a new yarn by Pinori Filati;
• With the new yarn, new sustainable clothing will be produced, such as the Rifò shopper or the denim cotton sweater.

Here you find which NaturaSì stores have Re-Think your jeans boxes:

• via Emilia Est 218 / a - 43123 Parma (PR) / via La Spezia 72 / a - 43125 Parma (PR)
• Via Valentini 28 - 59100 Prato (PO)
• Viale C. Del Prete 347 - 55100 Lucca (LU)
• Viale Adua 239 / C-D - 51100 Pistoia (PT)

Conclusions

We live in a faster and faster world in which the frenetic rhythms bring us to the unconditional purchase of things we don't need and that are thrown away after a short time.

This deleterious process also affects the world of clothing, which has brought low quality and high environmental impact garments.

The solution for the protection of our planet and our health is to think in a circular way, starting again to live an emotional and eco-sustainable fashion.

This means that every object we have in our hands can live forever: just make sure it can be upcycled.

And if you want to be part of the change too, support our project and visit our online shop.