A Nelson thrift store is involved in a regional initiative that is diverting nearly 50 tonnes of material a month from landfills.
And there are hopes for bigger things in future.
Owner of Positive Apparel Sean Keeley says when they opened the store they had a significant amount of waste and were feeling guilty about throwing it away.
So they decided to stock pile it and found a group out of Vancouver that moves it on to places like India and China. It then ends up back in North America after being recycled.
But Keeley hopes in the next five to 10 years they’ll have a fully functional facility in the Kootenay Boundary that will divert clothes from the landfill to be washed,shredded and re-spun into something else.