Press Release, Oct 2024

Luxury Fashion Waste Meets Growing Demand for Sustainable Corporate Gifting

The R Collective Offers Circular Solutions for Sensitive Textile Waste Streams to Global Brands

[10 Sept, 2024] UK and Hong Kong-based social impact business, The R Collective, renowned for rescuing, reusing and recycling luxury fashion waste to make beautiful corporate products and packaging to accelerate circularity, announces its business-to-business relaunch following their high profile participation at the UK Pavilion, organised by The UK Government's Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in Hong Kong, spotlighting leading UK circular fashion businesses between 4-7 September at CENTRESTAGE in Hong Kong.

Addressing fashion’s waste crisis - the equivalent of one dumper truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated globally every second- The R Collective's Founder and CEO, Dr. Christina Dean, shared: “Circular solutions that reduce waste are urgently needed. There's a lot of talk about circularity but not enough action. After years battling tough textile waste in the world’s biggest waste hotspots, our team has now devised innovative, secure and trusted reuse and recycling solutions for luxury brands’ excess materials, whilst also supporting global corporates with lower impact products and packaging.”

Introducing R Products - Made From Waste: The R Collective creates responsible corporate products and packaging for global firms, including UBS, Value Retail China, Zimmermann and Levi’s.

To do this, they rescue, reuse and recycle luxury fashion waste, from top quality, end of roll excess fabrics and leather offcuts to unsold luxury excess garment stock, into quality products, including bags and small leather goods. Produced in APAC and European production sites, R Products are distributed globally, including to Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the UK, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Zurich and beyond.

Reducing Corporates’ Environmental Impacts

As well as supporting waste-reduction for their luxury fashion brand partners, The R Collective is addressing the growing demand for sustainable corporate gifting. With the corporate gifting market expected to grow in 2024, reports suggest that the C-Suite's preferences are shifting towards more sustainable options that align with corporate sustainability values.

It is increasingly understood how sustainable gifting can play a role in reducing corporate’s carbon footprints, particularly by contributing to Scope 3 emissions reductions. These indirect emissions encompass a company’s entire value chain, including manufacturing, office supplies, corporate products and packaging. Significantly, Scope 3 emissions can represent approximately 90% of a corporate law firm's total emissions.

Introducing R Textiles - Recycling Solutions for Luxury Fashion. The R Collective provides trusted recycling solutions for complex IP sensitive fabrics and garments, which are often unsuitable for reuse, for global luxury brands, including complex, unsold garment stock.  

The R Collective’s recycling process for IP sensitive excess materials 

“The R Collective has been a strategic partner in identifying recycling solutions for Zimmermann’s fabrics, supporting us throughout the recycling process and creating opportunities for long-term partnerships to continue recycling our obsolete textiles,” said Michela Angiolillo, Sustainability and Social Compliance Manager at Zimmermann.

Impact at the Core 

To date, The R Collective has rescued 267,000 yards of textile and garment waste. Through a Circular Footprint Formula (CFF), they have measured that a typical R Product tote made from rescued fabric achieves significant environmental savings compared to a tote made with virgin materials.

ENDS

• Image Assets: View the UK Pavilion, featured product highlights, and our founder, Christina Dean's headshot [here].

• R Products Catalogue: Explore the full catalogue [here].

• The R Collective Video: Watch the video [here].

About The R Collective: The R Collective is a UK and Hong Kong social impact business rescuing, reusing and recycling fashion’s luxury waste for global businesses to accelerate circularity. Through R Products, they create responsible corporate products and packaging for global corporates from waste. Through R Textiles, they provide global luxury fashion brands with trusted recycling solutions for complex IP-sensitive fabrics and garments, which are often unsuitable for reuse as-is due to distinctive marks. (Formerly, they also have a womenswear fashion brand, made from waste, that retailed at the likes of Net-a-Porter and Lane Crawford.) 

About The UK Government's Department for Business and Trade (DBT): The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) provides trade and investment services and practical support. The team in Hong helps UK companies succeed in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong companies set up and invest in the UK. We offer expertise and contacts through our extensive network of specialists in the UK, and staff in the British Consulate-General in Hong Kong. This year, DBT Hong Kong is organising a UK Pavilion at CENTRESTAGE in collaboration with sustainable fashion champion Redress (HK) and The R Collective (UK) under the theme of Circular Fashion.