Just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which now mark a whole week of discounts, the British circular clothing brand Rapanui reminds us that things can be done differently: collections can be made from recycled cotton fibers and thus do not contribute to the growing mountain of textile waste – 80 percent of all Black Friday purchases are thrown away sooner rather than later. According to findings from BBC Earth, three out of five t-shirts purchased end up in the trash within a year.
Rapanui was founded as a fashion brand in 2009 by brothers Mart and Rob Drake-Knight in a shed on the Isle of Wight with just £200. It relaunched in 2018 as a Teemill platform to address the massive demand for t-shirts with a circular production model.
“Black Friday is a symptom of how deeply ingrained waste is in our world. Products are designed to be thrown away. This means that growth is only possible by making and selling more products and therefore producing more waste. We founded Teemill to solve this problem,” comments co-founder Mart Drake-Knight in a statement.
Remill offers take-back program
The latest Remill initiative closes the loop with an open take-back program that accepts 100 percent cotton clothing from all brands (excluding jeans and underwear).
The returned items are collected, shredded and processed into new recycled products made from 50 percent recycled cotton and 50 percent organic cotton.
Rapanui’s latest collection is printed on t-shirts made from recycled cotton from Remill. They feature circular natural motifs – from the rings of a tree trunk to the flower of a dandelion – each reflecting the idea that materials should be recycled rather than thrown away.
And if these T-shirts have reached the end of their useful life after a hopefully long life, they can be returned for recycling. To make this easier, each product includes a QR code that can be scanned for return information.
In 2025 alone, over 14 tons of cotton were collected, or a total of over 102 tons since Remill was started.