Linens For Life™
The Linens for Life Program, relaunched in Türkiye, Middle East, and Northern Africa by Diversey a Solenis Company and Sustainable Journey in partnership with UN Women and hotel chains, repurposes used hotel linens into upcycled products for reuse.
Linens for Life's concept for Türkiye and the MENA region evolved from an earlier Diversey a Solenis Company initiative. Our motivation was to do more than just a CSR project. Diversey and Sustainable Journey worked to structure the process into a circular economy model rather than relying on donation-based approaches. We seek to create a sustainable social business without the need for continuous external support. The inspiration lies in making a tangible, lasting impact on society and the environment, aligning with the values of social responsibility women empowerment, and environmental consciousness.
Background
The hospitality industry faces Sustainability Challenges
Hospitality and textile industries face a number of sustainability challenges, including the vast amount of linens consumed at hotels, whose production processes require significant amounts of virgin materials, water, and energy and cause a significant carbon footprint. Still, the private sector faces practical challenges in adapting to sustainability and ethical practices, driven by consumer demands for ethical products and regulatory pressures.
a 200-room hotel disposes of 1.5 tons of linens every year
Small women's producer groups face systematic and logistical barriers that hinder their entry into the market and their ability to thrive. These barriers are systemic inequities and a lack of access to crucial resources like market opportunities, business knowledge, and design innovation. Although NGOs are striving to make a significant impact on underserved communities, they also often lack market knowledge and experience challenges of establishing long-term sustainable programs.
Solution
We have designed a circular value chain mechanism where we collect discarded linens from our partnering hotel chains; we provide technical-circular design support, capacity building on sustainable production, and market access assistance to underserved women's producer groups for them to produce upcycled hotel amenities from refurbished linens. Finally, we close the loop by enabling our partnering hotel chains to reuse the remanufactured hotel amenities benefiting from the sustainable procurement agreements.
Beyond Hospitality: A Circular Economy Model for Lasting Change
The pilot phase of the Linens for Life initiative in Türkiye showcased the transformative power of circular economies. Over a short period, more than 35,000 upcycled products were created from 1.3 tons of discarded hotel linens, providing 3,350 hours of fair-wage labor to 35 women artisans. This effort not only diverted significant waste from landfills but also empowered women with meaningful work opportunities and income, highlighting the project’s ability to blend environmental stewardship with social impact.
Beautiful products for a more sustainable hospitality
Building on this success, Linens for Life is poised to scale within Türkiye and expand across the MENA region. With Diversey a Solenis Company extensive network of over 2,500 premium hotels, the initiative aims to create thousands of employment opportunities for women while embedding sustainable procurement practices in the hospitality industry. Beyond hospitality, the program envisions cross-sector applications, such as repurposing hospital linens in healthcare or integrating recycled materials into manufacturing and retail supply chains. By scaling this proven model, Linens for Life sets a foundation for resilient communities, empowered women, and a thriving circular economy across diverse industries.
