1. Home
  2. Investors
  3. Newsroom

Renewi workwear becomes a sports bag

10 June 2022

VanHulley

Renewi is getting its discarded workwear upcycled into new products by Vanhulley,

a social enterprise that makes new products out of old clothes, roll-up banners and flags. The waste-to-product company Renewi expects to receive the first batch of upcycled products soon. The order from Renewi is Vanhulley’s biggest order ever.

Huge mountains of discarded textiles, including workwear, are incinerated daily – textiles that are still perfectly fit for reuse. Renewi makes a daily commitment to the transition to a circular economy, also aiming to make its own activities as circular as possible. The recycler has even collected its own discarded workwear with the aim of giving it a new life, one that is as high quality as possible. With this aim in mind, Vanhulley is making sports bags out of jackets and tote bags out of trousers. Other leftover fabric is being used to make celebratory bunting.

Vanhulley offers a work-learning environment for women. Not just any women, but women who want the chance to take serious steps towards a better future in which they are as self-sufficient and financially independent as possible, a good role model for their children and have a social network where they also feel connected and part of the community. “We are really grateful for this order and hope that lots of large companies will follow Renewi's example. With contracts of this size we will have enough work for months,” says Jolijn Creutzberg, founder of Vanhulley. “Apart from the fact that you can make wonderful things from discarded fabrics, in our case we can change lives. That combination is what makes Vanhulley so special,” says Creutzberg.

“With this sustainable partnership we can make an impact based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG17) of the United Nations,” says Marc den Hartog, Managing Director Renewi Netherlands. “The fact that Vanhulley has both a circular and a social mission fits in well with our ambition,” says den Hartog. The SDG17 were agreed on to make the world a better place by 2030. “Honest work combined with sustainable production: this is a very appealing example of that.”