Arpe

At Arpe they want their pro­ducts to be con­nec­ted to the place, the ori­gin and the peo­p­le behind them. That is why they make their pro­ducts in-house, in their own fac­to­ry in Are­nys de Munt (Bar­ce­lo­na), in order to super­vi­se every detail and ensu­re the qua­li­ty they deserve.

Each pro­duct is crea­ted with gre­at care and love by their team of pro­fes­sio­nal craft­swo­men. While one cuts the fabric, the other prints the design and the next sews the edges. A com­bi­na­ti­on of hand­work and team­work that makes each pro­duct unique. 

Most of their pro­ducts are made from woven poly­es­ter yarn from post-con­su­mer rPET bot­t­les.

As humans, we are con­stant­ly pro­du­cing and using new resour­ces, crea­ting an incre­di­ble amount of was­te. Was­te that is eit­her inci­ne­ra­ted or left in the ground, pol­lu­ting a lot in both cases. So at Arpe they have deci­ded not to be part of this.

They have deci­ded to use exis­ting was­te and give it a second life. But how? The pla­s­tic bot­t­les are mel­ted down to crea­te a very soft micro­fib­re fabric, also cal­led poly­es­ter yarn, which is then woven into lar­ge pie­ces of fabric. 

In addi­ti­on, Arpe takes care of its actions, pro­ces­ses and impact on the pla­net. For this reason, they have cal­cu­la­ted the car­bon foot­print of their enti­re com­pa­ny and that of some of their pro­ducts, such as their micro­fib­re towels. 

Their 75 x 155cm micro­fib­re towels have a car­bon foot­print of 2.70 kg CO2 equi­va­lent. What does this mean? The car­bon foot­print of the towel is redu­ced by 21% when we use rene­wa­ble ener­gy and recy­cled mate­ri­al. In other words, the impact it has on the pla­net during its pro­duc­tion and use pha­se is 76% less than a cot­ton towel of the same dimen­si­ons. And it also helps us con­su­mers save on many dif­fe­rent aspects such as ener­gy, water, soap and space.

In addi­ti­on, they are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 cer­ti­fied, cer­ti­fy­ing effec­ti­ve qua­li­ty manage­ment sys­tems and envi­ron­men­tal manage­ment systems.

All their pro­ducts are eco-desi­gned under the cri­te­ria of the cir­cu­lar eco­no­my and with 100% rene­wa­ble ener­gy, in fact, they have solar panels instal­led in the factory.

In addi­ti­on, they look for the most opti­mal mea­su­re­ments and cut the fabric accor­din­gly in order to gene­ra­te the least amount of was­te. From the design pha­se, they think about redu­cing the amount of mate­ri­al to make the most of the width of the pie­ce and cut. On the other hand, in their ser­vice to com­pa­nies, they always pro­du­ce to the cli­ent’s pri­or order, so they try not to gene­ra­te sur­plus or waste.

They also make sure that their pro­ducts are recy­cled and recy­clable, so most of their pro­ducts are mono-mate­ri­al, to make their sub­se­quent recy­cling easier. And they tre­at their pack­a­ging in the same way: the less and the more recy­cled, the better!

Arpe has been a very local com­pa­ny from the start. Ever­y­thing they can do, they do in-house, in their fac­to­ry. They con­cei­ve, design, pro­to­ty­pe, knit, wea­ve, lami­na­te, cut, print, sew, manu­fac­tu­re and packa­ge in their fac­to­ry in Are­nys de Munt (Bar­ce­lo­na). And what they can’t do, they source from near­by local manu­fac­tu­r­ers who share their values.

Some of their fabric sup­pli­ers are from Asia and others are from local fac­to­ries in Barcelona. 

If you choo­se Arpe, you are bet­ting on 20 workers and a strong net­work of local col­la­bo­ra­tors.

Their doors are always open! At Arpe they want to be trans­pa­rent with their pro­duc­tion process.

Their fac­to­ry in Are­nys de Munt is open to anyo­ne inte­res­ted in kno­wing more about their pro­ducts and how they are made. They love to show what they do and how they do it, and they invi­te you to be part of it.

On their web­site you will find more infor­ma­ti­on about their manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses, use of mate­ri­als, their values and even some of their envi­ron­men­tal certificates.

If you want to know more about Arpe, just cont­act them and they will ans­wer all your questions!

In addi­ti­on, Arpe has reve­a­led to COSH! the name of their sup­pli­ers and pro­vi­ded their certificates.