J.Crew's New Denim Recycling Program Lets You Do Good and Save Money on New Jeans

Halie LeSavage
Updated

J.Crew's first collection of 2018 has a singular focus: Denim for every day and every occasion. And unlike other new collection drops, you won't have to wait months to get these jeans at a discount. Starting today, J.Crew is partnering with Blue Jeans Go Green, an organization that recycles old denim into housing insulation for communities in need, to collect customers' gently used jeans in stores and offer them a discount in return.

"The J.Crew Group has been a longtime supporter of the Blue Jeans Go Green program, with both Madewell and J.Crew participating over the last four years," Andrea Samber, the director of consumer marketing for strategic alliances at Blue Jeans Go Green's parent organization Cotton Incorporated, tells Glamour. "We were thrilled to hear that denim was J.Crew’s focus for spring 2018, [because] the Blue Jeans Go Green program is a great way to educate consumers about sustainability and diverting textile waste from landfills," she adds. Since launching in 2006, Blue Jeans Go Green has kept over 1,000 tons of toxic waste out of landfills by recycling over 2 million denim items, on top of providing Habitat for Humanity with materials for housing insulation, according to Samber.

<cite class="credit">J.Crew</cite>
J.Crew

Through the end of this year, if you bring your gently used jeans into a J.Crew store, you'll get $20 off any new denim item in return. There are no brand or style exclusions when it comes to what you can recycle. So, outside of doing some serious good, you can get some new threads in the process. (J.Crew ran a similar give-back-get-back campaign over the holidays, in partnership with One Warm Coat.)

<cite class="credit">J.Crew</cite>
J.Crew

"Once the denim is given to J.Crew for recycling, it’s then sent to the program’s manufacturing partners in Arizona to begin the recycling process," Samber explains. "All hardware, like rivets, and decorations are removed and recycled, and the denim is returned to its natural, original cotton fiber state." After that material has been broken down, it's treated with fire retardant solution and, eventually, turned into denim insulation.

<cite class="credit">J.Crew</cite>
J.Crew

We've seen our fair share of limited-time-only sales, but there's little risk of missing out on this do-good denim initiative. "While many of our retail partnerships have been shorter-term, the J.Crew program [is] unique in that [it's] year-round," says Samber.

<cite class="credit">J.Crew</cite>
J.Crew

So whether you're in the market for new jeans right now or are looking to invest later on in the year, you have time to participate in a promotion that gives back to communities in need and is sustainably minded. What better way to shop?

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