LS&Co. Unzipped

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May 23 2010

Denim into Dollars. Literally.

We’re always looking for ways to lessen our impact on the environment. That’s my responsibility as head of sustainability for Levi Strauss & Co.

I recently traveled to Torreon, a city of about one million people located in the high northern desert in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

We have a supplier there with whom we’ve worked for almost a decade. And they’re doing some innovative work on sustainability.

This is a large supplier, and they have a central fabric warehouse and cutting room, where the denim fabric is stored and cut into patterns that are shipped to nearby factories to be sewn into Levi’s® jeans.

What I saw was quite exceptional. At the cutting room, all of the denim scraps left over from cutting the fabric was collected and packed into bales. They look just like the white raw cotton bales the fabric comes from, although these were blue denim scrap bales.

And guess what happens to them?

They’re sent to a company in the United States that breaks down the denim scraps into paper pulp, some of which is used by the government to make U.S. currency.

Denim into dollars. Literally.

There are some other cool things going on in Torreon that I’ll share with you soon. In the meantime, just know that the money in your jeans may have almost been … your jeans!

Posted By: Michael Kobori, Vice-President, Social and Environmental Sustainability, Levi Strauss & Co.

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Tags: Denim

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Barbara Richards (not verified) - Dec 10 2011

I am so happy to see so many women upset about not finding 100% cotton jeans. I spend hours on the internet looking for them - and most of the time the results come back 98% cotton, 2% spandex. That is NOT all cotton. Beyond what everyone else has said, I would love to find a pair of 100% cotton jeans - DARK WASH! Come on Levis - go back to your roots. Why turn away all the women/men who have worn your products for years? We represent the largest number of buyers and yet everyone is targetting the 20 somethings??? Doesn't make sense.

Editor's note: Hi Barbara. Thank you for your comment. I'll be sure to share your thoughts with the Levi's® brand team.

Daniel Rustin (not verified) - Jul 12 2010

This is a fascinating use of the denim scraps. It has me thinking that as an acrylic sheet manufacturer, we could incorporate your scrap denim within a cast acrylic sheet which could then be used to produce point of purchase displays, fixtures, and counters for your eco-friendly branding efforts. I develop the new products for our company and would be happy to work with you on a joint project like this. It meshes very well with our environmental acrylic sheet products and could be an excellent co-development project.

Melissa Green, Supervisor, Levi's Outlet (not verified) - Jun 01 2010

I think this is so cool. What an interesting fact! I wonder what percentage of US currency could have possibly been the jeans I have on today. I turn my jean scraps into bracelets and headbands, If only I could turn them into $100 bills! Great Stuff!

eduardo rodriguez (not verified) - May 27 2010

muy interesante saber que no se desperdicia nada y saben que no contaminar es lo mas importante gracias por esta publicacion

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