Responsible for the products´ end of life

In order to facilitate meaningful repair, re-use or recycling, we at VAUDE try to use designs, select materials and choose the best production processes to ensure that the product can be used as long as possible and then easily disposed of – preferably recycled. Therefore, VAUDE uses no PTFE membranes, for example, that would release toxic fluorine compounds into the environment without expensive special handling. 

And if your closet is overflowing? VAUDE products usually make excellent second hand goods and are gladly seen by second or third hand users as donations, gifts or used clothing sales. As users, we contribute to extending the usage phase of the product – and therefore its sustainability.

VAUDE supports private resale of used products at a re-commerce platform on eBay.
If you want to be a sustainability conscious shopper, you can find used outdoor clothing and mountaineering gear at lower prices. With their purchases or sales, buyers and sellers extend the life cycle of outdoor articles and avoid having still-usable quality products end up in the garbage.

“The VAUDE Second-Use Shop at eBay is another important component of our holistic sustainability strategy. We are pleased to be able to show our commitment to the environment even beyond the eco-friendly production of our merchandise. The longer a product us used, the smaller its ecological footprint”.

(Antje von Dewitz, VAUDE CEO)

VAUDE is the first outdoor brand to open a Second Use Shop in Germany for used products. Check out the new VAUDE Second Use Shop at eBay.

In Germany, VAUDE works with the umbrella organization FairWertung e.V.

FairWertung is a national network of over 100 non-profit organizations.

Our products have a chance at a second life as second hand clothing gear with the non-profit FairWertung Organization. Clothing and gear that this non-profit organization can’t use itself are sold to textile recycling companies and the revenues earned are used to finance social projects.

At www.fairwertung.de, you can find more information including which FairWertung Organizations collect used products in your region and where their containers are located.

Within the guarantee period, VAUDE has the right to repair every article. Many customers, however, expect a replacement or credit memo rather than a repair.

If an article is replaced we usually repair it with no signs of wear and sell it in our outlet as a grade b product. Products that cannot be sold but are still functional are donated to FairWertung, an umbrella association of nonprofit organizations. More about that here.

Notes on graph:
The data includes all product claims which means also claims after the warranty period.
We have recorded the methods of recycling for returns since the end of 2013. The data in 2014 therefore also contain returns for which we didn’t record the recycling method (17%). Many of these products will be donated to FairWertung or sold as second choice, but have not yet been assigned in this graph.

In 2014 we could repair one third of all product returns and send them back to the customer. About 20 percent were donated to FairWertung. We had to dispose of 15 percent of product returns.

The goal of our repair service is to repair as many returned product as possible and return them to the customer. However, there are products that we can not repair from due to workmanship or materials for technical reasons. One example of this is worn fabric coatings on the fabric.

In 2014 we revised our repair handbook. The goal is to repair and further use more products with the help of clearly defined decision criteria.

VAUDE is currently not accepting products or packaging for recycling. However, the company has long been a forerunner of such programs: as early as 1994, the “VAUDE Ecolog Recycling Network” was established – the first recycling system in the industry for pure polyester products with collection and recycling. Ecolog products were technically engineered to be easily returned into the polyester fiber circuit and the “Ecolog Recycling Network” was equipped with the infrastructure needed. 

However, because too little products were returned to make the system “sustainable”, we had to end the program. From various studies, we know that the amount of collected products must be large enough to compensate for the logistical effort. We also know that a single brand with its own recycling system can only ever remain a niche, and has a very low impact on the overall consumption of raw materials and customers behavior in returning products.