Small waste jeans

Field trip with son sparks businessman's idea to keep scrap denim out of landfills by recycling it into pants.

Photos by CINDY YAMANAKA / Freedom News Service

A school field trip to a recycling center sparked George Powell's idea to recycle denim to make new jeans.

This is one of the Reuse styles available at Frou Frou Boutique in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Reuse Jeans are made of 80 percent preconsumer recycled cloth, the company says.

Until two years ago, George Powell didn't think about recycling.

He was 56, had been mostly retired for four years and was spending most of his time with his young son and golfing.

On a field trip to a recycling center with his son, Luke, with about 500 plastic and glass bottles, he came to a realization.

“If I had started recycling, I'll bet there are a lot of other people who recycle a lot better and with more enthusiasm than I do,” said Powell, of Laguna Niguel, Calif.

He applied this thought to the retail and apparel industry, in which he had worked since 1979. He had connections in China and began exploring ways to recycle fabric.

What Powell wants people to know is that he's not just taking someone else's jeans, slapping a new label on it and reselling it.

Instead, Powell's company, Reuse Jeans, takes preconsumer waste as its raw material. When factories in China produce leftover fabric from cut cloth and defective stock, Reuse takes it and runs it through a machine that resembles a shredder.

“In large part, it looks like cotton when it comes from the fields,” Powell said.

The newly formed material is spun into yarn, then woven into new fabric and cut into brand-new jeans. The leftovers and defects from Reuse's manufacturing process are again run through the recycling process.

Reuse's signature jeans are made from 80 percent recycled materials and other yarns to add stretch and pliability. Powell believes this to be the most efficient use of recycled material in the denim market.

And he believes it is a sign of things to come.

“Some day, when we reach critical mass and enough people are buying recycled fabric, you will be shocked how most of the clothes will be coming from recycled materials,” Powell said.

He's also committed to reducing the company's environmental impact with its non-denim materials. Reuse makes its labels and hang tags from recycled paper and is packaging its summer shipment in biodegradable bags. Powell is looking for sources of recycled zippers, rivets and shanks, and he wants to use vacuum packing to reduce the amount of cardboard packaging.

But for the stylish woman, Powell knows his product has to look right, feel right and be priced right. For that, he called upon his experience producing jeans for other brands.

The results include a dark skinny jean, a boot-cut jean with back-pocket embellishments and a classic-cut jean with distressing on the front. They cost $85 to $95 per pair on Reuse's Web site, reusejeans.com.

Powell's 47-year-old wife and his 31-year-old daughter wear Reuse, and it's resonating with teenagers, too.

“They're most likely to make a change and wrap their arms around a new trend,” he said.