VANCOUVER, BC, July 16,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Debrand, pioneers of next-life
logistics solutions for the apparel and footwear industry, today
announced the opening of their first U.S. facility in Columbus, Ohio. This strategic location
enhances the company's capacity to meet the increasing demand for
scalable advanced textile sortation services, expanding its
innovative circular textile ecosystem that serves as North America's most comprehensive textile
sustainability and circularity hub. Situated in a thriving fashion
and apparel industry mecca, Debrand's 32,000-square-foot facility
has been designed to support brands in integrating sustainability
and circularity models that align with impending regulatory
compliance using future-proof sortation technology and cutting-edge
machinery.
"The fashion industry is well beyond its tipping point with
textile waste. The sheer volume of garments produced each year is
becoming insurmountable, and there simply aren't enough regional
solutions to address this issue at the scale required in
North America," said Amelia Eleiter, CEO and Co-founder at Debrand.
"By expanding our footprint, we're making the investments necessary
to move the industry towards a more responsible future. Not only
will this help us address our current challenges with pre- and
post-consumer waste, but we're also future proofing so that once
regulations pass and our clients are faced with new operational
realities, we're ready to support them in lockstep to create the
most impactful systems of sustainability and circularity
possible."
With the emergence of the proposed Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR) bills in major U.S. markets, the urgency for
infrastructure investment to support the circular economy for
textile waste has never been greater.
The facility strives to mirror the success of the company's
facility in Canada, housing a
fusion of automated textile sortation technology and equipment.
This integration empowers scalable textile sortation, increasing
capacity and capabilities to meet the growing demands of Debrand's
next-life logistics services and solutions.
"We are thrilled that Debrand is opening a new facility in our
hometown," said Meghan McLane,
Director, Product Sustainability at Victoria's Secret. "As our
partner, Debrand has been instrumental in advancing our end-of-life
garment program. This facility is another step in building the
infrastructure needed in North
America to enable brands to move towards more circular
models."
In November 2022, Debrand received
a strategic investment from WM, North
America's largest environmental solutions provider. It was
the first investment made by WM in textile recycling. The new U.S.
facility aligns the company with WM and its operations across
North America.
With access to the city's top-tier talent, markets, and
resources, the new facility is poised to fuel Debrand's ongoing
growth trajectory and success within the fashion and apparel
sector. The company remains committed to providing consulting
services, offering guidance on circular textile strategies that
encompass technical knowledge, reuse and recycling expertise, and
next-life logistics. In the last 18 months, Debrand has diverted
over 4.5 million pounds of textile waste from landfill.
"Debrand's expansion is a promising evolution for advancing the
fashion industry's textile circularity within the North American
market, and the technologies-including Digital Product Passports
(DPPs) like EON's own Digital IDs-that have been a crucial element
in regulatory compliance in the EU," said Natasha Franck, CEO and Founder at EON. "Their
expertise and insights were instrumental in shaping our own
research for scaling circular systems. With such a deep
understanding of textile waste management, along with their
longstanding commitment to sustainability, Debrand is providing
critical contributions that will help North America develop practical and scalable
solutions to unlock its circular fashion economy."
ABOUT DEBRAND
Debrand is North America's most
comprehensive textile sustainability and circularity hub for top
apparel brands like Everlane, lululemon, Aritzia, and Canada Goose.
Founded in 2008, Debrand takes a holistic ecosystem approach to
next-life logistics by combining in-house tech-enabled sortation
with expert solution partnerships, delivering the highest impact
possible at scale in reuse, recycling, responsible disposal, and
circular textile innovations. Based in Canada with facilities across the United States, Debrand aims to propel the
textile industry's sustainable future, finding ways to optimize the
planet's finite resources by unlocking the potential in untapped
products. To learn more about our work and impact, visit
debrand.ca.
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/debrand-launches-us-facility-to-expand-innovative-circular-textile-ecosystem-in-north-america-302198309.html
SOURCE Debrand