Product Recycling

We aspire to produce zero waste.

That’s why we design our products to be sturdy, yet comfortable, and long-lasting.

That’s also why we started our product recycling program, to close the loop and ensure our products never end up in a landfill.

How to Recycle Oolie Products

  1. Complete this form.
  2. Print out the packing slip and instructions.
  3. Package and ship your products to us.

You will incur the costs of shipping. We will incur any costs of restoration and recycling of materials.

What Happens to My Products?

It depends on the product and its condition.

Our preference is to restore the product, when possible. Restoration could involve disassembly, cleaning, or replacing specific components that show the most wear.

After restoration, we may either resell the restored product to another customer (not labelled as new, of course). Or, we may donate the product to a charitable organization.

If the product cannot be restored, we will disassemble it into any component parts, then deliver the parts to a dedicated textile recycling facility, where they will be reformed into new (non-Oolie) products.

The Oolie Shoosh is a good candidate for restoration, as it’s made out of heavy duty wool felt. The felt may show wear over time, but the Shoosh’s construction can maintain functional for many years.

Bedding products, unfortunately, cannot be restored or re-sold to new customers, in any condition, for regulatory reasons. So, the following products will be fully recycled:

  • Oolie Deep Fitted Sheet
  • Oolie Sheet Set

How to Recycle Oolie Packaging

Most of our packaging is recyclable in most areas.

We ship products in 100% recycled poly mailers. These mailers are extremely durable and can be reused. They even have a secondary adhesive strip built-in (to facilitate easy returns). For that reason, we encourage you to first reuse the mailer, if you can. For example, you could use it to send us a love note or a small collage inspired by your deep appreciation for Oolie products.

Failing that, our poly mailers can be recycled with “thin film” code #4 plastics, like produce bags and bubble wrap. Most large grocery and chain stores in the US will accept thin film plastics for recycling.

Inside the mailer, our 100% recycled kraft tissue paper is recyclable with mixed paper in most areas. In some areas, it can also be sorted for commercial/industrial composting (but not home composting). Check with your recycler for guidance.

For the time being, our certified organic products are individually wrapped in clear poly bags. Partly this is to protect the products from humidity and other exposures during shipping, but it’s also to guarantee traceability, needed so that we (and our organic certifier) can absolutely guarantee that the individual product in your hands meets all organic standards criteria, including social responsibility criteria. Every individual product bag has a sticker with a bar code and lot number from which we can trace every individual product back to its source(s).

Long-term, we want to be a completely plastic-free operation; we continue to keep an eye on packaging innovations that would fulfill our needs of protecting the product, ensuring traceability, and being as sustainable and low-impact as possible.

Side note: If you made it this far and are wondering why we’re not using compostable bioplastics, since those seem pretty cool (and we don’t disagree), we recommend reading what the packaging sustainability pros at EcoEnclose have to say about the current state of commercial composting and bioplastics.

 

Any questions? Contact us.