be the fibre

We Make Hope (WMH) collects discarded textiles through containers in municipalities and

Through local collection points at retail chains and concept stores including Yuman Circular Village (Brussels), Moose in the City (Antwerp), Supergoods (Ghent) and Harvest (Leuven). The collected clothes are sorted by social enterprises in Flanders, with those still in good condition being sold at the We Make Hope flagship store in Boechout.

By grouping the production process as much as possible in Tangier, Morocco, and also obtaining the leather remnants locally, be the fibre is able to reduce CO2 emissions. However, their ultimate dream is to buy and install a fiber machine in Belgium to make their chain even shorter.

All proceeds of be the fibre go to beautiful development projects. By choosing be the fibre, you choose humanity and our planet. Discover their products in the We Make Hope flagship store in Boechout and its webshop.

The old collected clothing, which are no longer fit to wear, is manually sorted by colour in Morocco after which it is fiberized and turned into a new fabric. A fabric can be recycled a maximum of four times. After that the fiber is too small to make it into a new fabric, but the smaller fibers can be felted. be the fibre felts the residual fabrics into coasters, which companies can have personalized with their own logo. Products like umbrellas or bicycle bags can also be personalized by be the fibre for your employees. 

For the bath towels, be the fibre works with the organization Seatowel. They work with a network of fishermen who collect plastic from the sea while fishing. The fished plastic is remelted and spun into yarn and together with recycled cotton forms beautiful towels. A portion of the profits of these towels goes to ​‘The Ocean Cleanup’.

The be the fibre bicycle bags are ethically and environmentally made in Cambodia from cement and cattle feed sacks. The two workshops and the small bicycle bag factory are recognized by the World Fair Trade Organization. The factory employs 40 women who work under fair conditions.

When collecting donated clothes, the organisation encountered a problem: a large amount of the clothes deposited in the containers are no longer wearable. As a result, these garments often do not get a new use, but end up as waste.
WMH started looking for external partners to process these textile waste streams in order to evolve from a linear operation to a circular one. The high-quality collected clothing is still sold in the second-hand circuit, but the remainder is now fiberized and processed into new items, handbags and accessories. All proceeds from the collected textiles still go to development aid and non-profit organisations worldwide. 

be the fibre has a short supply chain. This is because the old clothes are collected in Belgium and then sorted and processed into new fabrics in Morocco. The production of the bags and accessories themselves takes place in a social enterprise in Flanders.

All materials in be the fibre designs are recycled. This way, no animals are directly involved in the production process, although it could be that the items contain recycled animal materials.

be the fibre will take its first steps towards retailers in early 2021 and also sell the products in their own WMH store in Boechout. On request, be the fibre also makes personalized, sustainable business gifts for companies. In their assortment you can find different bags including backpacks, shoppers, weekend bags, bicycle and laptop bags. But also towels and socks made of plastic fished from the sea, laptop protection covers, cosmetic bags and felt underlays. 

be the fibre is an initiative of We Make Hope, a non-profit organisation that supports development projects. The resources for this development aid are mainly obtained by collecting clothes. 

Shipping collected textiles to African countries harms the local economy and creates tons of waste. The cheap textiles are unfair competition for local designers and tailors. In addition, the unused scraps of clothing often end up in landfills afterwards. That’s why We Make Hope prefers to invest in education, health and a sustainable society. The proceeds of the be the fibre products therefore go to a good cause, in contrast to other textile collection companies.