RESHIRT ROOTS

Born and grown in the heart of Rotterdam, Reshirt Rotterdam gives a new life to unwanted clothing pieces. This year, there are 5 of us and although we all come from different parts of the world, we all fell in love with the city of Rotterdam and want to have a say in the sustainable actions o its textile waste!

 

Thank you, next

It was November 2019, and were a small innovation team at Enactus EUR. With a failed business model around plastic recycling, we were stuck. Forced to start from scratch. But finding a new problem in a seemingly-sustainable Rotterdam was hard.

After months of research, interviews, surveys, and hours of decision-making, we were a determined group of students with a problem to solve: textile waste. And the moment we fell in love with solving this problem, solutions started racing. Come February 2020, it was time to start testing.

 

Beginnings

We set up clothing drives, and consequently, a flood of ideas came pouring in: upcycling workshops, upcycling t-textiles into rugs, headbands, pillows, placemats, pot holders, scrunchies, coasters, and more.

By April 2020 we had finalized our branding, name, and mission. In May, we created social media accounts and an Etsy shop with our listed products. Come end-May, we made our first buck.

 

PASSION FOR TRASHED FASHION

Why did we become so passionate about textile waste? Let's look at it this way:

 

72% of textiles that are discarded in Rotterdam end up in normal trash and are burned in an incinerator.

 

According to Rotterdam.nl, this means that 9,088,677 Kg of textiles are burned each year in the city. That amounts to approximately 27,266,031 Kg of CO2 released in the air; the equivalent of charging 3,443,369,998 smart-phones for an entire year. Or powering the energy for 3,116 homes in one year (EPA.gov).

 

A Big Goal

So we continue with a small impact: we estimate that each month we upcycle the amount of textiles that one person would discard per year (9 Kg). Our biggest goal is to reach this same number per day, to have a total of 3,285 Kg of textiles upcycled per year. That means saving the annual textile waste from 365 people, 9,855 Kg of CO2, and 1,256,830 smart-phones charged in a year. But baby steps.

We would like to achieve this by mindfully growing and spreading the little spark of joy that our products bring. Because it feels pretty damn good to buy something that comes from upcycled waste. Not only are you treating yourself to a unique and fabulous product, but you’re also treating the planet by supporting Rotterdam's circular economy. And that’s something to be proud of. So on behalf of mother Earth, we’d like to say thank you.

 

 

OUR TEAM

To have a better idea about who’s behind all the hard work this year, let us kindly introduce you to the team!

 

Mads: Team leader

Regina: Head of Marketing

Gabi: Marketing

Lisa: Head of Events

Amelie: Events

Elin: Events

Kajus: Website design