Het Laatste Nieuws - European Spinning Group & Jules Clarysse NV in K in Kortrijk

Producer of textile and fashion yarns European Spinning Group (ESG) and bath textile producer Jules Clarysse NV from Pittem join forces in shopping mall K in Kortrijk to promote circularity and co-creation.

"Drop Your Jeans" is a campaign to raise awareness on the advantages of textile recycling and the importance of it. ESG works together with De Kringloopwinkel Kortrijk for the collecting and sorting of textiles, they also created a customized textile collecting container for the project. The container is located next to the Kiosk of Designregio Kortrijk at the Graanmarkt in Kortrijk. 

The jeans are given a second life, for example as a towel or napkin. Producing jeans requires lots of natural resources and needs a lot of chemicals to get to the end product. Up to 20,000 litres of water is required throughout the process of making a pair of jeans.

Because the demand of jeans is so big, the cotton is often grown in places that are not geographically suitable for it. 

To address this problem, there is the 'drop your jeans' campaign. By recycling old jeans we can extend the longevity of the cotton and we need less virgin materials to produce high-quality products.

Shop window in shopping centre K in Kortrijk

Initiators are bath textile manufacturer Jules Clarysse NV from Pittem and European Spinning Group (ESG) in Spiere, a textile company active in the production and distribution of textile yarns. Together they met with the management of K in Kortrijk and the result of that meeting is the usage of the shop window at the entrance of the shopping centre.

Until the end of February, the shop window in shopping centre K in Kortrijk tells the circular story of more than fifteen partners. Based on recycled old jeans, you can make new products such as towels, napkins and clothing fabrics. 

 "We are joining forces because it is time to think about the problem of the polluting textile sector", say Julie Lietaer of ESG and Mieke Deprez of Clarysse. "And what better way to do that than with jeans? Most people have one in their closet. We show that you can rework waste material from old jeans into a high-quality product." 

Image is copyright of Henk Deleu - Het Laatste Nieuws

Link to the original article of Het Laatste Nieuws:
https://www.hln.be/in-de-buurt/kortrijk/doneer-oude-jeans-in-kortrijk-tegen-milieuvervuiling~a476d48b/?fbclid=IwAR3yKEMPkXs5R8zDBQ_mw-NQyHHaNnW2hEizI-mQiKdP0anz3IMwpQnuigE