Visit at textile factory in Vilnius
Updated last:
29 May 2013
On the 16th and 17th of April 2013,
the municipality of Copenhagen and Plastic ZERO visited
a textile sorting central just outside Vilnius,
Lithuania.
As part of the textile collection
and sorting forum, the purpose of the trip was to get a better
understanding of what actually happens with the clothes that we put
in the collecting bins all around town.
With a sorting capacity of 30 tons
of textile per week and nearly 300 employees, the sorting central
is the biggest and most modern of its kind in
Lithuania.
To make sure that as much of the
textiles as possible are reused, it´s sorted into more than 60
different categories, varying from high quality vintage clothes
sorted for specific markets or special requests, to textile reused
as cleaning clothes. Only 4 % of the output is burned and
everything else is sold or donated with the purpose of
reuse.
Our hosts were also kind enough to
give us a guided tour to 3 thrift shops in Lithuania. The shops are
all run by paid staff and supplied with new clothes from the
sorting central every 7th week. To make sure that the customers
always have a good reason to buy reused clothes they have also
developed their own shopping concept, which includes gradually
reduced prices, pop up happy hours and a constant flow of reuse
clothes on the shopping rags.
Thanks a lot to
our kind hosts, for some very inspiring days in Vilnius.
