Retailers are Buying Back Their Products for Resale

In an effort to keep reusable materials out of landfills, retailers like Ikea, The North Face and Patagonia—to name a few—are buying back their products for resale.

And more recently, major retailers have also begun accepting goods for recycling. For instance, Staples accepts any brand and type of electronic at its stores for free recycling. Apple recycles its own products, and H&M accepts used clothing of any size, type or brand in its recycling boxes at its retail stores.

According to a Forbes report, part of the move has to do with environmental awareness and the volume of garbage going into landfills. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as much as 75 percent of waste that ends up in landfills could be recycled, but we only recycle about 30 percent.

Forbes has more:

There’s a new trend in product recycling being pioneered by companies like Ikea, The North Face and Patagonia, which are buying back their used products for resale to consumers.

Accepting used products for recycling is nothing new. Thrift stores and church groups have taken donations of used goods for decades, reselling serviceable items to consumers and often bundling unsellable textiles for purchase by wholesalers to turn into rags.

Municipalities in some areas also serve as recycling operations, taking everything from paper to glass, plastic and hazardous materials for processing, while some take the concept a step further and allow residents to recycle furniture, books, clothing and anything else they have to purge from their own households. The Wellesley, Massachusetts Recycling and Disposal Facility’s Reusables area is a well-known pioneer in this approach.

Read the full article here.