Positive Apparel has recently taken the next step in its endeavor to create a fiber recycling plan in the Kootenays. The estimated open date is 2020 or sooner.
As of February, 2014 Positive Apparel expanded into a secondary warehouse building exclusively for sorting. With the addition of a clothing bailer, fork lift and a few more staff, the thrift store is now able to process all unwanted textiles in the Kootenay Boundary area.
These textiles are currently being shipped to Vancouver to be distributed world wide. Recycling is currently being sent overseas. Positive Apparel would like to see those jobs become local and start selling an end product world wide, boosting the local economy and creating sustainable jobs
Organizers have been working with many other smaller thrift stores and consignment stores by picking up and/or accepting their unwanted textiles.
Most of these smaller places do not have the room to hold the necessary 16- to 20-thousand pounds required in minimum shipping to these companies.
The group is reaching out to other thrift stores to help divert and repurpose hundreds of thousands of pounds of textiles.
Anyone who runs a thrift store or other business which produces textile waste, and wishes to participate, can contact Aviva Keely for more information at 250-505-5444.