Here's What Went Down With Retold Recycling After Shark Tank
There's no doubting that recycling has become more important than ever over the past few years, According to Earth.org, in the US alone, the average consumer dumps a massive 81.5 pounds of clothes every single year, which means up to 85% of all the textiles we buy end their life in a landfill.
Determined to bring that figure down and get people sustainably clearing out their wardrobes, Amelia Trumble, Noelle Delory, and Alan Yeoh founded Retold Recycling, a program that allows people to send in their old clothing and other textiles for repurposing. The trio met while working for MAC Cosmetics, where they shared their passion for recycling. "[We] frequently talked about a long term pivot to invest our efforts into a business that would make a positive impact on the planet," Trumble told Medium in 2022. "Years later, I was renovating my closets in a small NYC apartment and was frustrated to find no solution to easily declutter unwanted clothes, particularly without adding to the global landfill issue." And, with that struggle, Retold Recycling was born.
The entrepreneurs kicked things off with seed funding from friends and family, but knew they'd need some help from established entrepreneurs to scale the business. And so, in 2022 they turned to "Shark Tank," looking for $300,000 in return for 15% of their company.
Mark Cuban saw promise in Retold Recycling
During their episode, the Sharks asked the trio some tough questions about the logistics of the business, as Trumble explained that their customers buy a bag for $14.50 which they then fill up with five pounds of textiles and send back. Though the Sharks expressed their concern over if consumers would actually pay that price to have their clothes and other materials taken away and recycled, the entrepreneurs shared that at the time of filming, they had already seen some success with their concept. They revealed that they were expected the business to have a turnover of $500,000 by the end of 2022.
Unfortunately wasn't enough to convince all the Sharks. O'Leary, Greiner, Grede, and Herjavec made it clear they wouldn't be investing — though Cuban was a little more receptive to the earth friendly proposition. Cuban made the two an offer, revealing he'd give them the $300,000 they were looking for, but wanted 25% of the business in return. The two tried to make a counteroffer at 22%, but Cuban wasn't willing to budge. At all. "That 3% is not going to change. Take the deal," Cuban told them as the other Sharks laughed. And take the deal they did.
Retold Recycling had big plans for Mark Cuban's investment
Amelia Trumble seemed pretty excited to have Mark Cuban on board with Retold Recycling, making it clear that she already had a plan for his investment. "Despite plenty of drama in the Tank, Mark seemed to be able to cut through the noise and immediately understood our vision and how we could scale," she shared in a February 2023 press release after landing the $300,000. "His past history of betting on solutions that help society at large meant that we knew he was the perfect Shark for us!" she added.
Trumble also opened up about the next steps for the business while speaking to WWD. "We have volume through Mark's network, and through the platform of the show — that gives us greater negotiating power to be able to ship to more hubs," she explained. "The great thing though, is with our model, it's all based on USPS routes, so everything is sort of like slow freight and gathered in those existing routes. It's not like we're adding truck[s] and adding emissions or anything like that; we're sort of playing into existing networks."
And it seemed like the business certainly got a lot of attention after "Shark Tank." Trumble and Yeoh shared a video to Instagram in February 2023 in which they welcomed their new customers to the fray. "We've received so many orders and emails from customers so please bear with our team as we work through the backlog," they said.
Retold Recycling is still doing well in 2024
Retold Recycling is still going strong, and as of January 2024, is still in business. Ahead of the 2024 new year, the company celebrated by sharing a competition for its followers on Instagram to win one of four two-year subscriptions to the company's services. The giveaway came shortly after Retold Recycling celebrated a big milestone. In November 2023, Retold Recycling announced on LinkedIn that it had managed to prevent 100 tons of textiles from being sent to landfills.
The journey hasn't been without bumps, though. Amelia Trumble admitted to Canvas Rebel that after getting a boost from exposure, the company experienced some challenges when it came to dealing with increased costs. "Unfortunately with our current model, the cost of shipping is built into the retail price and even though we had a cushion, expecting prices to go up, we never predicted the rise of 2022," she shared. Trumble explained that with costs rising, they didn't have the ability to negotiate prices down. But all that changed thanks to the ABC show. "Thankfully, off the back of our appearance on Shark Tank, our increased exposure and volumes have meant we are in much better shape," she said.
The company has also expanded. In addition to the single bag, those looking to help change the world can purchase an annual subscription, a quarterly subscription, or three bags from the brand's website. The company is also offering sustainable merchandise, including a tote bag and a sweatshirt.
Retold Recycle is dedicated to educating the world about the benefits of recycling
Though Retold Recycling has no doubt done a lot in getting the world more into easy recycling, that doesn't mean there's not more to do. Amelia Trumble revealed in September 2023 that she wants to further educate people about the benefits of recycling, and hopes people will innately turn to Retold to do it. "We believe that Retold can become synonymous with clothing and textile recycling," Trumble told Canvas Rebel. "We believe the biggest opportunity is around education — simply there are so many end consumers who don't even realize they are contributing to landfills by throwing their old underwear or socks etc. in the trash," she added. Trumble also revealed the biggest part of the business' future growth will be in spreading the message of the company's #NoLandfill mission. "The more people we have mindfully diverting their old items to recycling is how we will really make a difference for our planet," she said. "Hopefully changing widespread consumer behavior and decreasing textile landfills one day will be our legacy!"
It seems like Trumble is a very busy lady these days. In addition to her Retold Recycle role, she also serves as a Growth Advisor for the optimization platform Render Better, according to her LinkedIn. And her business partner Alan Yeoh also appears to be juggling jobs. In addition to his time spent on Retold Recycle, his LinkedIn states Yeoh also serves as VP, head of CRM and Lifecycle at Walmart.