Zero Waste
Above all, the mission of The Soex Group is Zero Waste, a goal that is not that far off thanks to a carefully-crafted system of Re-Wear, Re-Use and Re-Cycle. Each of these building blocks of Zero Waste works independently and in tandem with the others to allow the company to reach its potential.
With outposts in 14 countries on four continents, the most sophisticated technology and a complex collecting-sorting-grading process, 25-year-old Soex is able to process 300,000,000 pounds of clothing every year. Some of that clothing is put through the Re-Wear program and is sold to developing countries as well as fashionable boutiques around the world; some is Re-Cycled and converted into new marketable industrial products; and some is simply taken in its original form and Re-Used in a brand new way.
At no other recycling company is the economy of ecology better proven than by The Soex Group. While most other companies produce between 20 and 30 percent residual waste, Soex generates less than two percent. Even that’s not good enough: Unsatisfied with anything less than Zero Waste, Soex is constantly exploring new products, new markets and new ideas to better its bottom line.
That’s not all: The end goal might be Zero Waste but during the intervening journey, Soex achieves many other significant benefits for the environment and the community. •By buying used clothing, Soex provides revenue that goes back to the community, and if that clothing was a charity’s unsaleable donation its re-sale helps that institution fulfill its own mission statement. •The process of achieving Zero Waste creates jobs, too--Soex has more than 2,500 full-time employees worldwide—and increases the local tax base wherever it does business. •In addition to saving our landfills, Soex also helps save valuable resources—water, for example; it’s been estimated that it takes about 8,000 liters of water to grow the cotton used to make a single pair of jeans. When those jeans are Re-Worn, Re-Cycled or Re-Used, there’s no need to make another pair….
The ultimate intent of Soex is to save the environment, but in doing so it will act in meaningful social and entrepreneurial ways, too.