Have you ever wondered what happens to your old clothes when they’re thrown away? For a group of AKF staff in Syria, the answer to this question was a cause for concern. In their community, textile waste is a large and growing problem, leading to overloaded landfills and increased pollution, not to mention the resource-depleting nature of the textile industry. In a country where energy is currently a scarce commodity, making use of existing materials to support production is not only better for the environment, but better for the economy too.
Recognising this, the six-person team from Salamieh developed a solution through AKF’s Climate Innovation Challenge: recycling old clothes to create affordable and eco-friendly products, mitigating the environmental impact of textile waste. The team members: Hasan Saifo, Nagham Doun, Hussein Hamoud, Ola Alhallak, Rawad Eid and Rima Yahya, almost all work within AKF Syria’s operational teams, from HR to finance and procurement.
They have named the project ‘Tre-Eco’ – referring to trendy, eco-friendly and tree (resembling nature & environment) and is pronounced like tricot, the French word meaning ‘knitting’.
Despite having little experience in project implementation, their passion for environmental conservation and community impact fueled their participation in the challenge. “As someone who has a family and has lived in a war zone for years, our lives have been severely affected in many ways,” shares Rima. “The environment has been hugely affected, and seeing that pushed me to think, how can I shed light on this issue for the community? I want to see my child grow up in a sustainable, environmentally conscious community.”
In Salamieh, where the team is based, there is limited recycling infrastructure in place. “There is a lack of a strong mechanism to recycle clothes that constantly accumulate,” Rawad explains. “Recycling is not a new idea here, but in Salamieh, it’s followed individually by very small numbers of people.”
For the team however, this challenge presented an opportunity: not only to manage the textile waste mounting up, but to create an infrastructure around the process which required skilled workers to drive it forward. As Nagham says, “[We wanted to] create job opportunities, allowing skilled people to generate a decent income,” she continues. “Our solution is unique because we are creating a community of skilled people working in recycling.”
These skilled people mostly include tailors and others working in the textile industry, but who don’t currently utilise recycling or sustainable solutions. After seeing advertisements on social media, local tailors apply to the Tre-Eco project and are selected through a technical test and interview process. One of the main goals of Tre-Eco is to create job opportunities, so priority is given to skilled tailors who are not currently working nor have immediate access to equipment like sewing machines.
The tailors obtain discarded fabrics from factories, receive donations from communities or buy unsold clothes from local businesses at low prices; then they transform them into new products, from clothing to household goods. These upcycled products can then be distributed to customers; the team ensured that distribution is climate-friendly, so goods are delivered in electric trucks, cars and bikes, charged using solar energy. As Ola explains, “Through Tre-Eco, we hope to celebrate the culture of eco-friendly products and to spread the culture of recycling here and in other regions.”
However, their journey was not without challenges. The team encountered obstacles such as a lack of retail factories and limited expertise in recycling, as well as fluctuating prices in Syria’s volatile economy which made procuring necessary equipment and materials difficult. Nevertheless, their strategic planning enabled them to overcome these hurdles, emphasising the importance of collaboration, communication, and community engagement.
Sharing advice for others on an innovation journey, Rima said, “An innovation should bring many benefits for your community and its development. You must search within your own community to know its problems and needs.”
Despite not being from a project background, the team took great care to understand the needs of their community and were passionate about designing a solution that didn’t solely respond to environmental challenges, but also responded to the socioeconomic issues faced by Salamieh’s residents. They worked closely with a local civil society organisation (CSO) – called the National Association for Economic and Social Development – to implement Tre-Eco. The association has supported AKF in implementing several initiatives, assisting with legal authorisation and other processes. Looking ahead, the team hope to collaborate with other CSOs to scale-up their solution further across Syria and beyond.
Whilst they may have started small, the team hope that their innovation will “pave the path for others to be more eco-conscious,” Nagham says, including local start-ups, small businesses and other organisations. “The impact may be ‘micro’ now, but it’s still impact. We cannot provide a huge opportunity to hundreds or 1000s of people, but we are giving them hope that it can be done,” she affirms.
