Making waste go further, with a little “TLC”

The Provence TLC Story It all started in Belgium where -as in that other “Low Country” the Netherlands- sorting waste for recycling is ingrained in the culture. Twenty-five years ago, Thomas Fraineux’ mother, along with her four brothers and sisters, founded “Recycollecte”, an organization that recycles 10,000 tonnes of clothing, household linen and footwear (textiles, linge de maison et chaussures = TLC) each year. In Provence, where textile sorting centers are nonexistent, the family-run company and its partner Esybiz found a “promised land”. The project was taken up by the Invest in France Agency (IFA), which passed it on to Provence Promotion, and Provence TLC started operations in March 2013, with their center at Vitrolles, near Marseille, being inaugurated on May 17. In the words of Thomas Fraineux, its sales and marketing manager, the company’s mission locally is two-fold: “through employment, valorize used textiles and, through used textiles, valorize employment”...