From trash to charity
Date:
Author: Rune Jungberg Pedersen, Communications & CSR Director
Category: Sustainability , Logistics
28,000 sheets
Because they were five centimetres too short, the sheets could not be sold at JYSK stores.
Instead they were donated to the Salvation Army and turned into cleaning cloths for the electronics industry.
Profits from the sales of cloths will go to poor families through the Salvation Army.
Cooperation between JYSK and the Salvation Army ensures that 28,000 sheets are transformed from trash to charity.
Product quality is crucial to JYSK. But even the best cotton will result in a bad customer experience when a fitted sheet is produced five centimeters too short.
That was exactly what had happened when JYSK recently received 28,000 sheets with too little fabric to fit on mattresses.
The mistake meant that Category Manager Kathrine Møller Nielsen had to be creative in order to make sure that the sheets were not just thrown away, thereby wasting a lot of resources.
“Of course we would not sell sheets that are too short, as this would only end up with frustrated customers. So we reached out to see if the sheets could still be used in a good way, so all of the cotton and energy used to produce them would not go to waste,” explains Kathrine.
From sheets to cloths
Forth came the Salvation Army, an international charity organisation specialised in helping poor families, with a great idea on how to use the sheets.
“All of the sheets are delivered to a company in Poland which we cooperate with. They cut the sheets into smaller pieces of cloth, which are used to clean machines in the electronics industry. The cloths made from the sheets are of the highest quality, as they are produced from 100 percent cotton, and therefore we can actually get a good price for them from companies who need this type of cloth,” explains Centre Manager Kasper Kristiansen from the Salvation Army.
As a charitable NGO, the Salvation Army will use the money to help poor families to a better life, and in that way the sheets doomed for destruction will end up as helping a lot of poor families.
“I am very happy that we were able to find a good solution, so all of the sheets did not go to waste. That they can even raise money for a charitable cause at the same time is just perfect,” says Kathrine Møller Nielsen.
