The California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) annually honors California-based companies for their innovative environmental efforts with the Arrow Awards. This year鈥檚 Golden Arrow winner for overall excellence in product stewardship, Outknown, is the first clothing company to win the environmental award. Outerknown designs stylish men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 garments from recycled, regenerated, and organic materials while ensuring transparency in their supply chain. Their company philosophy is one that to creates lasting changes in environmental and labor practices across the world. 鈥淲e build environmental and social value into the core of our business philosophy鈥� states Mark Walker, CEO of Outerknown.
鈥淭he Arrow Award winners are leaders in driving a circular economy,鈥� said Doug Kobold, Executive Director of the California Product Stewardship Council, 鈥淲e are thrilled to highlight companies with such impactful environmental achievements and work hard to minimize environmental impact, locally, and globally.鈥�
The textiles and clothing products are becoming an increasingly hot topic in the waste world, as they are the 6th most prevalent material disposed comprising 4% of disposal in CA. Almost 1.25 million tons of textiles were disposed in CA in 2014 (2014 Characterization of Solid Waste in CA). California has set an ambitious goal of 75% recycling, composting or source reduction of solid waste by 2020. Reducing discarded textiles generation and disposal are essential for reaching that goal as recycling alone will not solve the problem of waste textiles. CalRecycle, the state agency for waste management, has been collaborating with CPSC to host a textiles workshop on December 3, 2019 in Sacramento, CA.
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