“The apparel industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, second only to the oil industry,” said retailer Eileen Fisher in this article about the fashion industry and its responsbiity for its pollution.
While most of the pollution is generated in the pre-production stage of producing clothing, there is a significant amount of environmental waste generated at the store level.
This video by Circa news, which illustrates what happens to the inventory and store fixtures when a retail store closes. Mannequins are made out of materials that do not biodegrade such as plastic, styrofoam and fiberglass and most store fixtures are made out of metal.
In addition to the negative impact environmental impact that happens when retailers throw mannequins in the trash, it is waste disposal fees are costly. Mannequins are big and bulky and the cost of the dump bins large enough to cart them away is expensive.
There are companies that recycle mannequins by stripping them of all the fittings and materials that can be processed. The mannequin is then put in a grinder. (Note this only works for mannequins not dress forms.)
This process, which is also NOT cheap, requires mass transportation to the plants, where they are granulated and used for fuel and in cement.
Anything that is ground up and put into cement we question the environmental impact of burning such materials, due to their toxic fumes when incinerating.
Now that more retailers are concerned about sustainable retailing and cost cutting, they are turning to mannequin recycling companies like Mannequin Madness to recycle their mannequins.
We recycle mannequins FREE of charge. This includes dress forms, mannequin torsos, legs, heads and jewelry forms. Retailers deliver their unwanted mannequins to our facility in California or to one of our affiliates in other states across the country and Canada.
When we recycle mannequins for retailers, technically we are repurposing versus recycling them. We extend their life cycle by finding a secondary use for them.
We believe in the circular economy which is essentially “finding a new use for an old thing in its existing form.”
We resell the used mannequins at a deeply discounted price from their original cost. They allows people on a tight budget to afford a high quality products. A few examples of our customers are: small to midsized retailers, museums, Poshmark/Ebay/Etsy sellers, trade show vendors, fashion students, cosplayers.
Even the mannequins that we receive which have broken or missing parts are upcycled by artists, makers and crafters for a variety of functional and decorative art projects. You can see examples on our Facebook Group: Crafty Fun Mannequins. Also people create Halloween and Burning Man displays with damaged mannequins.
People often ask us why retailers throw away mannequins away in the first place. The average life span of a mannequin in a retail chain is about 7 years.
Mannequin styles change just like clothing styles change and retailers need to stay on trend. That is why you rarely see a realistic mannequins with facial features, wigs and eyelashes in a major retail store, but only in a vintage store. The trend now is headless or an egghead mannequin. Sometimes mannequins in metallic colors are popular, other times it is plain white.
Other reasons why mannequins are thrown away are:
-a retailer is closing underperforming locations
-the retailer went bankrupt
– the mannequin gets damaged by a customer or employee and it is not worth repairing
-a new management team wants to change the visual displays that the previous team installed
If you have a need for our mannequin recycling services, send us an email at sales@MannequinMadness.com and we can set up a time to discuss the details.
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