In late 2019, our team launched SwagCycle, an innovative service dedicated to the sustainable management of the lifecycle of branded merchandise.
We’re excited to play a leading role nationwide in the branded merchandise industry, but when companies rebrand or get acquired, a lot of swag unfortunately can find its way to a landfill. We started SwagCycle to help solve this problem.
Since launch, we’ve worked to build out our charitable and recycling networks and wanted to share some exciting statistics, as of December 31, 2020:
- 21 completed engagements, across 13 states and 2 continents
- 60,418 items kept out of landfills
- Facilitated $168,922.18 in charitable donations!!
Making a difference in our community and across the country has been incredibly rewarding. Some highlights include:
- Helped a leading travel company donate 1000 obsolete 25-ounce BPA-free aluminum sport bottles to United Way Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley which they distributed at a community event in support of families in transition, who are experiencing homelessness, or are in need of any of the services offered at the event; and Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, which they gave to children ages 6-12 who attended their programming.
- Assisted a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company donate individually wrapped toothbrushes from an obsolete patient kit to Project Stretch. Project Stretch, a 501(c)(3), was founded in 1988 by a small group of dental professionals interested in providing vital dental services to needy children. Project Stretch offers programs in the United States, Mexico and Honduras.
- Helped a major educational organization donate several thousand water bottles and t-shirts to Delivering Good, a wonderful organization that provides people impacted by poverty and tragedy with new merchandise, to offer hope, dignity and self-esteem to at-risk children, families and individuals.
- Assisted our parent company with a donation of more than 6000 cotton masks to the Greater Boston Food Bank, to give to their team members on the frontline (warehouse, transportation and other staff in the field), as well as their network of distribution partners (i.e. shelters, kitchens, pantries, etc.) across the 190 cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts. Every day, these essential workers help people in their communities who are grappling with terrible food insecurity, and we were honored to do our part to help keep them safe.
Our top priority is to help ensure that products live on through these worthy causes. Sometimes, however, a company needs their branded items to leave the marketplace altogether due to brand obsolescence. The most commonly-requested item to be removed from circulation is apparel, and we have built an incredible national recycling network. Our largest partners are in Massachusetts, Texas and California!
The good news for companies committed to sustainability is that 95 percent of clothing and textiles tagged for disposal can be reused or recycled. For example, they can be made into industrial rags or reduced to fiber for creation of new products like yarn, paper, insulation and carpet padding. We recently helped a home healthcare organization in Nebraska responsibly recycle old garments from their field staff, after they rebranded. Their cotton shirts became painters’ rags and their polyester/blended apparel was shredded and recycled back into yarn.
Another fun project came from the California-based firm, Wunderspoke Marketing. Their founder, Christian Pfrommer, contacted us on behalf of one of their clients, a global technology firm. They had approximately 1500 t-shirts that were no longer brand-compliant, due to some changes in marketing initiatives, and he reached out to SwagCycle to help his client recycle these shirts. We paired these shirts with one of our partners in their region who was able to take the shirts to be cut down and turned into painters’ rags for reuse.
Christian shared this feedback: “It was a pleasure working with SwagCycle. They were able to provide a textile recycling solution that left the smallest footprint possible, which my client was thrilled about. In addition, their recycling solution was in my home market, creating the smallest amount of transit-related emissions possible. Overall, the experience was fantastic, and I would highly recommend their service to others.”
Right after COVID hit, inbound traffic to SwagCycle slowed down dramatically, as companies “regrouped.” Over the summer, however, demand for our services exploded. Major drivers were rebrands, cancelled conferences, and companies consolidating offices and wanting to find a home for their swag. Luckily, our early investment in SEO often made SwagCycle their first result on Google. Just over the last few weeks, we have heard from companies in Redwood City, California, Onalaska, Wisconsin, Des Moines, Iowa, Clearwater, Florida, San Antonio, Texas, and Herndon, Virginia.
As I wrote when we launched, our goal, quite simply, is to transform the branded merchandise industry by helping companies think about product stewardship, from the brainstorming phase all the way to the rebranding stage. This is something I’ve worked on for many years in a volunteer capacity for the Product Stewardship Institute. Our first-in-the-industry offering has been very well-received, by companies, charities and even promotional products competitors, and we feel like we have a tailwind as we continue in 2021.
Please feel free to get in touch – we’d love to hear your feedback and explore ways we can help you make an impact while helping the environment.