Recycling your old blue jeans obviously benefits the environment, but now through the end of January, if you recycle your jeans at a Fresh Produce retail store, it will also benefit you and communities in need. Fresh Produce, a national apparel brand for women, is teaming up with Cotton Incorporated, the marketing and research company for cotton, and Blue Jeans Go Green, a denim recycling initiative, to make this happen. When you return your old denim — any style, any brand — to one of Fresh Produce’s 24 stores this month, you’ll receive 15 percent off Fresh Produce’s new denim line, KUT. Then Blue Jeans Go Green will turn the old denim into housing insulation, which will be donated to communities that need it. “We love the bright colors Fresh Produce apparel is known for and we know that their customers will love this unique program that gives new life to unwanted denim,” Andrea Samber, co-director of strategic alliances for Cotton Incorporated, said in a press release. “By donating jeans and other denim items to Blue Jeans Go Green, Fresh Produce customers are not only helping to divert textiles from landfills, they are helping provide housing insulation to communities in need and getting a discount on new denim purchases at Fresh Produce.” While this partnership between Fresh Produce and Blue Jeans Go Green is new, the denim recycling program has already made quite an impact. To date, more than 600 tons of denim has been diverted from landfills by Blue Jeans Go Green, and the organization has insulated more than 1,000 homes across the country with their UltraTouch Denim Insulation. Blue Jeans Go Green has also partnered with many organizations, including universities and Habitat for Humanity chapters, to help accomplish its goals.
Blue Jeans Go Green has received more than a million pieces of denim thus far, and you can add to this number by dropping your old jeans off at a Fresh Produce location through Jan. 31. If you’re interested in recycling old denim but don’t live near a Fresh Produce store (find locations here), you can also mail your old jeans to Blue Jeans Go Green directly.