UNIQLO Collects over One Million Pieces of Used Clothing in March Campaign

Copyright Shinsuke Kamioka

UNIQLO Co., a leading Japanese clothing retailer, announced on May 29, 2009, that it had collected over one million pieces of used clothing during its sixth collection campaign month in March 2009. Starting with the collection of used fleece products in 2001, the company expanded the effort to include collection all UNIQLO clothing during monthly campaigns each March and September. During the sixth collection month in March 2009, the number of collected items increased by 50 percent from the previous campaign.

Out of the collected items, 84 percent are donated to developing countries to be reused, 10 percent are used as fuel to generate electricity and 6 percent are converted to waste cloths or as insulation.

Since 2006, UNIQLO, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has been donating the used clothing to refugee camps across the world, countries such as Thailand, Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, and Somalia. The clothing helps to prevent people from contracting infectious diseases, motivates children without clothing to go to school and encourages women to participate in society.

It is estimated that more than 30 million refugees in the world have insufficient clothing. Hoping to donate more clothes to those in need through these activities, starting in 2009 UNIQLO has decided to carry out this clothing collection campaign three times each year, adding June campaigns to the existing March and September programs.

UNIQLO Collects 910,000 Used Products for Donation to Developing Countries (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027146.html
UNIQLO to Collect Its Products for Recycling Twice a year (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/026643.html
UNIQLO USA official website
http://www.uniqlo.com/us/

Posted: 2009/10/16 06:00:16 AM