This back-to-school season, Williamsburg Premium Outlets is inviting the community to participate in a denim drive to help support sustainability efforts.
On Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., Williamsburg Premium Outlets is hosting a back-to-school “Do Good with Denim” drive in collaboration with Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green initiative. Shoppers are invited to donate any type of denim apparel to the drive, which will be located between Auntie Anne’s and the Ann Taylor Factory Store.
“We know that people are purchasing new blue jeans to replace the ones that have been outgrown for their kids,” said Kathie Strauss, the mall’s director of marketing and business development. “It’s just a great opportunity to gather some of these materials and [recycle them].”
The drive is one of several sustainability efforts that Simon Property Group, which owns and operates the mall, has implemented in a desire to increase their socio-economic impact and reduce their environmental footprint.
“As a company and certainly locally, we recognize that we’ve got retailers that, as part of their sustainability efforts, are working to recycle clothing items so that they can keep things from landing in a landfill and move them on forward into new products that people can use,” Strauss said. “That’s a great way for us to participate in more sustainability efforts.”
During the drive, the mall will also be giving out coupons for some of the retailers to people who bring in items to donate.
Strauss hopes that the denim drive, which will be the mall’s first, gets a big turnout from back-to-school shoppers and other members of the community.
“Our goal is to raise the awareness,” she said. “The more people that would want to bring in some of their denim items for us to move into the recycling cycles, we would be delighted. It’s our first year so it’s an open invitation.”
Sian Wilkerson, sian.wilkerson@pilotonline.com, 757-342-6616
