Girlfriend Collective

Image courtesy of Girlfriend Collective

Girlfriend Collective was launched after Ellie Dinh couldn’t find an eco-friendly activewear brand. Along with her husband, she chose to design clothing items with sustainability at their core, using low-impact or recycled materials. In 2016, they debuted a pair of leggings made from recycled plastic bottles and invited women to pre-order them free of charge. 

The post-consumer plastic bottles are all sourced from Taiwan. Previously know as ‘garbage island’, Taiwan has now become a world leader in recycling with 55% of waste being recycled. Once the plastic bottles are retrieved, they remove the caps and labels, sort the plastics into colours, crush them into small chips and finally wash them through thoroughly. The chips are then sorted into four separate categories of plastic, one of which is used in Girlfriend Collective’s activewear. 

Image courtesy of Adweek

Girlfriend Collective are proud to announce that their leggings are made from 25 recycled post-consumer bottles. Their beautiful bras are made from 11 bottles, which means that their matching activewear set contains 36 recycled post-consumer bottles. 

In 2019, the sustainable brand introduced their new recycling scheme: Re-Girlfriend. Available to customers based in the US, Girlfriend Collective offers the opportunity to send your old Girlfriend activewear to their recycling centre. On their website, they state that their products were designed to be recycled. They transform your old items into new gear and send you $15 store credit as a thank you. 

Girlfriend Collective is SA8000 approved, which is a certificate that protects workers’ conditions and wages. To find out more about how Girlfriend Collective incorporate sustainability into their brand, visit https://girlfriend.helpdocs.io/category/uzz12nnc5t-sustainability-manufacturing.