UPS is working with two local non-profit organizations toupcycle thousands of old uniforms into dog leashes, benefittingprograms to provide much-needed homes and jobs for Atlanta-arearesidents - including some four-legged ones.
When the company announced last September that its iconicbrown uniforms were getting the first significant makeover innearly a century, it created a challenge: what to do with the oldones. Through partnerships with the Initiative for AffordableHousing’s re:loom and Best Friends Animal Society’s LifesavingCenter in Atlanta, UPS is keeping the old uniforms out of landfillsand incinerators and upcycling them into fashionable new dogleashes.
Since 2009, re:loom has trained homeless and low-incomeindividuals to make beautiful, hand-woven products from excesstextiles. Using a grant from the UPS Foundation, weavers atre:loom’s Scottdale, GA weavehouse are fashioning about 1,200leashes from old UPS uniforms. The program has kept 118 tons of olduniforms out of landfills and incinerators in the first sixmonths.
UPS is donating the finished leashes to Best Friends AnimalSociety’s Lifesaving Center in Atlanta, where they’ll be used andgo home with dogs adopted at the center.
“These old uniforms were worn by our 125,000 hard-workingdrivers who deliver nearly 22 million packages and documents a dayacross the globe,” said Patrick Browne, director of sustainabilityat UPS. “The last thing we wanted to do was to dump them in alandfill. That’s why we’re so happy to partner with these amazingnon-profits to give them a second life and do something special inour community.”
“Generous donations like this one from UPS help us change thelives of Atlanta families by providing housing, training and steadyjobs,” said Lisa Wise, executive director of the Initiative forAffordable Housing. “And as a pet lover, I’m thrilled to see theseawesome upcycled leashes benefitting not only our families, butalso Best Friends Animal Society.”