Moda re-: eco-social impact

Albert Alberich Llaveria started as a volunteer in this business. Today, he’s the Director of Moda re-, driving the company to new levels of social and environmental impact. It’s a company whose business model hints at systems change, shifting the way we think about clothing and its typically linear lifecycle.

Moda re- is a cooperative that operates like a social business, specialising in textile recycling in Spain, with an emphasis on labour integration. The company, that was initially set up by Caritas as an NGO but has since spun out to become self-sufficient and profitable, coordinates and brings together 49 social (labour) integration projects across Spain. On the ground, Moda re- is a leader in textile recycling in Spain, with the largest network of second-hand clothes shops in the country.

“We collect used clothing from containers, go through them and classify them. Re-usable ones (about half) go to the treatment plants and are then partly sold in our shops and partly exported to Africa. The rest gets recycled through a process that includes the latest technology, like infrared sensors to identify textile composition and help their separation,” explains Albert.

This results in reduced water use, fewer carbon emissions, pesticides and insecticides, ensuring a solid environmental impact. At the same time, employees tend to be from vulnerable backgrounds, like immigrants, abused women, ex-convicts, or even substance abusers (drugs, alcohol). “We hire them and train them, usually over 18 months, so that they can pick up the skills they need to move on to another job in the market,” explains Albert. “That ranges from technical capabilities to life-skills like discipline, language and communication skills. We also ensure that each worker has support from an accompanying team member, to help them manage any difficulties they might face like paperwork, permits and general integration.” At the end of the day, this improves their employability, with more than 60% of workers successfully moving on to another job.

The company has grown significantly, going from strength to strength, including deals with Inditex, Zara and Mango for example, and recently sought a loan from Impact Bridge, a private credit fund, backed by the EIF through the InvestEU programme. “The loan will finance a new treatment plant in Sabadell, near Barcelona, run by our partner Formació I Treball, allowing us to double the capacity we are able to manage. More and more clothes are being recycled – thanks also to the obligation for all municipalities to collect textile, so there’s a big opportunity here.” The new plant will create more than 80 new jobs as well, but the growth doesn’t end there: “We’ll be opening also a factory in Madrid in June 2024, another in 2025 in Galicia, and then one in the south as well. I think there has been a dramatic change in recycling attitudes, alongside an impulse from the EU. In 2021 we were saying that one day this elaborate and effective recycling system would happen. Well, now it’s happening…”