Recycle your down jacket, duvet or sleeping bag with Re:Down

Recycle Your Down Jacket, Duvet or Sleeping Bag with Re:Down

How feathers, ethics, and Continuum Project come together in one very soft loop.

At Alpkit, great outdoor kit doesn’t come at someone else’s expense — not at the expense of animals, not at the expense of the environment, and not at the expense of future generations.

That’s why we’re partners with Re:Down®, one of Europe’s leading innovators in recycled down, to help close the loop on one of the most technical — and emotional — materials in outdoor gear.

Why down matters

Down is one of the lightest, warmest, most efficient insulators on Earth. But it’s also an animal product — and that means ethics matter.

Most down on the market still comes from industrial agriculture. While many suppliers now avoid live-plucking and force-feeding, traceability is patchy and abuse still occurs. Even when the sourcing is good, virgin down is a by- product of meat and egg production — tied to emissions-intensive farming.

We want a better option. One that aligned with both our animal welfare principles and our circular design ethos. Enter Re:Down®.

What is Re:Down®?

Re:Down® collects used down from old jackets, duvets, and sleeping bags. They sort, clean, sterilise, and separate out high-quality clusters from unusable materials. The result? Clean, high-loft recycled down — ready to be used again in premium outdoor products, including ours. What can’t be reused gets turned into organic compost or insulation bricks. Zero landfill. Circular as it gets.

How it works at alpkit

We’ve made it easy for you to close the loop:

• Drop off used-down products at any Alpkit store. Or post it back to us using our free returns (Alpkit Foundation will pay your postage), or post it at your own expense and that money will be spent supporting other projects.

• We collect and send them to Re:Down® in bulk

• The down is processed, tracked, and sent back into the global circular supply chain

• Some of it even ends up in our own gear — a full circle from your hands to ours, and back again

Since 2022, we’ve collected over 3.5 tonnes of used down. It’s not a marketing line — it’s a working system.

How to check if it's down?

Check the internal care labels to determine whether the filling is down, feathers or synthetic. Alternatively, you can look at and feel the contents. Hold up the item to the light and take a long, hard look at it. If it's feathers, you'll be able to see and feel the sharp quills. But down is soft and light. Please only send us 100% down-filled products.

How to get your down to us

Please only send your down items, as these items will be sorted differently from our normal Continuum donations. Please don’t mix any other items for Continuum with the down items you are returning.

Send them to: Alpkit Global HQ - Continuum Donation, Units 12 - 14 Oak House, Moorgreen Industrial Park, Engine Lane, Newthorpe, Nottingham, NG16 3QU.

Click here to send us your Re:Down parcel or drop off in one of our outdoor stores around the UK

Why this matters

Animal welfare and circularity don’t often share a sentence. But with Re:Down®, they do.

We’ve never used fur or exotic skins. We only use animal products when necessary — and only from verified humane sources (like those certified to the Responsible Down Standard (RDS)). Recycled down gives us another layer: warmth without harm. Comfort without compromise.

It also massively reduces environmental impact:

• 91% less water use than virgin down Up to 80% fewer CO2 emissions
• Fewer birds bred into an industrial system in the first place

And crucially — it works. Re:Down® performs to the same standard as virgin down in warmth, loft, and durability.

What we’re still figuring out

No system is perfect. Not all down can be recycled. Not all garments are labelled well enough to track. And yes, we still use some virgin RDS down too — though less each year.

We work to increase customer awareness. Many people don’t realise they can drop off old jackets and duvets — or assume they have to go in the bin. Making reuse visible is part of the culture shift we’re building.

Bigger than a jacket

This story is about more than feathers. It’s about how we treat materials, and the creatures they come from. It’s about designing systems that think beyond the checkout. It’s about choosing better — together.

So thank you. Every old jacket dropped off. Every rehomed product. Every conscious purchase. It’s all part of the same loop — a quiet resistance to throwaway culture, stitched together with care.

Because when you give a sh!t, even a feather has value.

Find out how you can donate outdoor clothing and equipment you no longer use through Continuum.