Textile Recycling Program

Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability /

Donate Your Old Samples or Excess Inventory Now

S&S Activewear has partnered with Give Back Box to enable a recycling program tasked with reducing textile waste and supporting charities that focus on domestic violence, mental health, and economic growth.

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What You Need to Know

What Is Give Back Box?

Give Back Box operates as the logistical muscle behind many large retailer donation programs by connecting businesses with charities across the US and abroad. They provide consumers with an easy way to donate old clothing and household items (or in our case extra samples or damaged inventory), therefore extending the life of donations and alleviating landfill overflow.

Give Back Box works with charities that support causes like domestic violence, mental health, and economic growth.

What Can I Donate?

This program is designed to provide a solution for textile waste in our industry. Therefore, you can donate things like sample overflow, old or damaged inventory, displays, and everything inbetween. In addition, if you have old clothes to get rid of at home those donations are always welcome.

When Can I Donate?

This program will live as a year-round effort under the Make an Imprint umbrella. There is no limit to how many labels you can download. This means you can continuously send in as many boxes as you need to, as often as you need.

How Do I Send My Donation?

For US based donators, please visit this site to download your pre-paid shipping label.

Once you’ve packed your recycled box to the brim, attach your label and drop off your box at a UPS location.

Other Questions You Might Ask?

Where is my donation going and what happens to it?

The boxes are routed directly to the nearest participating local charity organization. Donated items are sorted and sold by the participating charity, and revenues are used to help fund community-based programs, including job training, employment placement services and support services.

What is the weight limit and box size requirement for my donation?

The maximum weight is 70 pounds. The combined length and girth of a piece (the length of its longest side plus the distance around its thickest part) may not exceed 108 inches. Please do not send large electronics, any liquids, fragile, hazardous, or volatile items, or ammunition in boxes.

Can I choose the charity that gets my donation?

Yes! If you choose to select which charity receives your donation, you will be asked to cover the $15 shipping cost. You can select a charity by visiting this site.

Is there a fee for donating?

There is no cost to participate, however if you select one of Give Back Box’s partner charities to receive your donation rather than sending it straight to Give Back Box, there is a $15 shipping fee.

But what about carbon emissions?

Give Back Box operates using reverse logistic solutions, meaning your donation will only get to the charity if there is already a truck going that way. This prevents extra driving, which means less carbon emissions, and promotes cleanerair.

Corporate Culture

We’re united by a single, shared mission. Our ability to work together makes our dreams fully attainable. As we grow, we’ll continue to build on these values, welcoming new ideas and innovative schools of thought that not only make us the team we are but evolve into who we want to be.

Professional Development

At S&S, we strive to create a path of opportunity for all our employees. Here, you can build a career from scratch, collaborating cross functionally every day to create a more diverse tomorrow.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Diversity is the foundation of progress. Our values reflect that very notion, and every customer, vendor, and employee should feel surrounded by warm welcomes, the utmost appreciation and respect all because they are simply themselves.

Corporate Philanthropy

Corporate Philanthropy is rooted in our history, and we're proud to support people in the communities we serve.

Occupational Health & Safety

We aim to build a culture where all employees contribute to and take ownership of maintaining a safe work environment.

S&S Activewear’s goal is not only to minimize operational accidents, but to have zero incidents year-round. To reach this goal, we will continue to pursue Health and Safety improvements through various initiatives.

Energy Management

Reducing & Recycling

We are continuously committed to using less energy in our stores and facilities, while increasing the amount of renewable energy we use in our enterprise every year. By 2023, we’ll have even more systems in place to further this mission.

Solar Panels

We’re outfitting several of our warehouses with solar panels—giving us the ability to generate clean, renewable power and help reduce greenhouse gases in our communities.

It is estimated that by 2050, solar will account for 20% of the nation’s energy needs.

High-Efficiency Lighting

We use LED lighting throughout our company. That’s because LEDs are up to 80% more efficient than CFLs and incandescent bulbs. In addition, our warehouse lighting is activated by motion sensors. When the aisles aren’t occupied, we’re not wasting energy

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Our Goals

While there are emissions associated with our business as a fashion retailer, a large portion of the emissions we generate that contribute to climate change come from our purchased goods and services.

To remedy this, we're in the process of pushing towards a science-based target that will help us reduce our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources we own or control, like driving company cars.

Scope 2 and 3 emissions are indirect emissions that result from our activities but are controlled by other companies, like lighting, heating and cooling our stores, or the products we design and manufacture.

Freight Optimizer

Designed to create efficiency and cutout excess carbon emissions, the freight optimizer tool allows customers to choose the shipping option best for their needs and for the planet.

Zone Skipping

In an effort to cut gas emissions and lessen shipment travel, we’ve implemented zone skipping, or otherwise known as freight consolidation.

This means our shipment freights are presorted at the point of origin based on its final destination before the carrier takes possession.

This method of shipment will reduce carrier hassle and cut expenses as a result of smaller loads.

Waste & Water Management

Our Goals

As S&S Activewear continues to expand, our team looks for additional ways we can work sustainably.

Keeping the environment and the health of our employees in mind, we’re continuing to decrease the amount of water consumed by our facilities.

We are also expanding our recovery and recycling efforts, reducing our disposal costs and decreasing our reliance on natural resources.

Recycling

Boxes: We make a huge effort to reuse boxes still in good condition for shipping our orders. We’re proud that we only ship a small percentage of our orders using brand-new boxes, greatly reducing our cardboard waste.

Baskets: Each ton (2,000 pounds) of recycled paper can save an impressive 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water. We’ve also chosen to place paper-recycling bins throughout our offices, so it’s easy breezy for employees to recycle their paper waste.

Recycling Stations: Our office lunchrooms include individual receptacles, so our employees and guests proactively recycle their paper, aluminum, and plastic.

Textiles: We want to provide a more sustainable solution to landfills, so we're launching a donation program that makes it easy to give used clothing and accessories a second life—while also supporting local nonprofit organizations.

Reusing/Reducing

Water Re-filling Stations: More than 60 million plastic bottles get tossed every day. That adds up to a staggering 22 billion bottles a year in landfills and water sources.

That’s why we decided to install water-refilling stations at all ourfacilities. Then, we gave our employees S&S stainless steel travel tumblers.

We’re happy to say that we’ve greatly reduced our plastic bottle waste, plus our employees are happily hydrated.