Circular solution: punch bag filled with cuttings

In our workshop in Macedonia we produce on average 5,000 kilos of textile waste every month. We have been looking for a long time to find a sustainable solution for these cuttings and eventually found it in a collaboration with Atila from Eindhoven, a company that specialises in combat sport articles. Our cuttings are now used as a filling for punch bags. A cool and sustainable solution that helps us to get one step closer to our target of a 90% circular production in 2025.

 

Scalable and affordable upcycling

Since early 2017 we work together with Atila and produce 100 punch bags per month. Atila fills those punch bags with our cuttings and we subsequently sell them. When the punch bag is worn, the filling can simply be reused. This makes the product an ideal, sustainable solution for a problem that many textile manufacturers are dealing with. The textile waste that was once a problem, is now part of a successful business model.

The only obstacle on our path to starting up this project, was the fact that the textile waste had to be shipped from Macedonia to our head office in Goirle. In the end it turned out that there was some space available in the lorry that transports manufactured clothing every week from Macedonia to Goirle. That remaining space is now filled by us with textile waste. This solution ensures that not much extra shipping is needed to transport the leftover material.

 

Collaboration on horizontal chain level

The HAVEP punch bag shows how a horizontal chain level collaboration with a partner from another branch can lead to a creative, circular solution. Besides that, this project proves that not just the environment improves with clever circular entrepreneurship, but also the financial results of your business.

Do you want to know more about our circular initiatives? Then read this blog about the HAVEP Attitude® jeans that is for 66% made of recycled material.