Lab Notes

I think one of the prohibiting factors as to why the recycling isn’t done here or in Europe is the cost of the machines and more than likely labour costs. You would need a substantial amount of down to justify the cost of purchasing all the correct equipment I would have thought.

If recycling the down means sending it to China then it’s pointless, empty container or not. UK companies like Mountaineering Designs in Keswick will re-shell your bags and add extra if needs be. I also doubt you’d be saving any Geese as I imagine the down is a by-product of animals farmed for food at any rate. As it stands both my down jacket and bag are 10 years old and still going strong, despite plenty of abuse.

Possibly a Pipe dream? I’d support any appropriate scheme for recycling, but have a couple of worries about the viability of a scheme for down intended for ‘high end’ products. First down is bulky, and very light, cant be compressed and you’d need a lot (more than Alpkit could amass?) and I doubt it would be free for the return container trip, it depends on whether shipping fees are by the kilo (cheap!) or cu metre (more pricey). If there was a scheme in UK that would surely be better?

But mainly, the down from a myriad of different products of different ages would be all mixed together, how would this be separated? much of the down, if it has had a good use, would be broken or knackered. I wouldn’t want a down jacket full of broken, old, down; surely the processing cost of weeding out the broken feathers etc -if actually possible- would make it costly, unfortunately new is often cheaper than refurbished.

so maybe better to find a bulk feather user/recycler in uk, or come up with something to use them for, making some nice ‘eider’downs, or just compost it in small quantities? I’m personally more interested in a scheme for recycling old climbing ropes, fleeces and other plastics. I think there probably is a role for kit makers to get together and think about solutions to deal with end use of gear, just this probably isn’t the product?

After reading all the comments and thinking about it a bit, I’m inclined to go with the idea proposed by Chiz… that is recycle into something else, in the Uk, that would be nice/good using down, but not put into a ‘high end’ product where performance is critical....
stuff em into ‘alp-pillows’ instead!

and does Alpkit want the hassle of running a scheme for all the disused down products in the UK??!!

think it’s a fantastic idea (in principal) and i’m always impressed at how conscientious you are.

the vast majority of stuff that would be handed in for recycling would be pretty old and probably have lost quite a bit of insulation.  think you might end up trying to save the world but making sub alp-standard products.  also can’t imagine you would be able to conduct temperature ratings and whatnot on products where the type and quality of down used would vary between individual jackets/bags.

if you could overcome these sort of problems though, i imagine you could be onto a winner, especially if it works out a bit cheaper without any additional environmental impact

Re-cycling anything is a good idea but I would only do it if it was processed in the UK.