With The Reinvention Program all of our products come with an UNLIMITED BUYBACK GUARANTEE. That means you can send anything you bought from Kola Project back to us FOR FREE instead of throwing it out. We will process the item and resell it through reuse, refurbish, remanufacture or recycle.

Buyback Value

Every Kola Project product shows a buyback value on the product page. This buyback value is calculated for items typically returned within one year in like-new condition.

The buyback value is there to give you an idea of the amount of cash back you’d get after returning an item via The Reinvention Program. The cashback will be awarded in the form of points. Points can be redeemed to pay for future purchases. For example, if your buyback value is £50, you will get 5000 Points, and you can use them to get a £50 discount on your next purchase.

How It Works

To submit your used or salvageable products to The Reinvention Program, please access your order history. First, click on the order number and then click the link to The Reinvention Program. Next, fill out the resulting brief two question questionnaire.

Submit your request. We will email you shipping instructions and mail you return packaging. We also offer free collection for larger items and large quantities of items. Items will arrive at our processing facility, and once processed, we will add points to your account.

Circular Supply Chain

You hear the word “circular” again and again at Kola Project. But what does it actually mean. Before explaining circular shopping and supply chains it might be helpful to under linear supply chain first. This is what the traditional or linear supply chain that is used by almost all the retailers in the world looks like.

Today many products you buy follow the above or the “take-make-use-throw” model. Where products go to landfills and incinerators at the end of their life and a very small amount gets recycled.

Circular Supply Chain cuts off landfills and incinerators from the system.

Through The Reinvention Program we collect your discarded items and put them back into the system so they can be used again and again…and again.

Reuse, Refurbish, Remanufacture, and Recycle

At this point, you’re probably curious about what happens to your returned items. Depending on the item’s condition, it will be reused, refurbished, remanufactured, or recycled – in that order.

Reuse

Kola Project defines reusing as the practice of using an item for its original purpose repeatedly. Reusing requires no processing – just cleaning and sanitizing – thus saves time, money, energy, and resources. Kola Project encourages reuse by sourcing products that are of the highest quality with increased longevity. High-quality items with increased longevity extend the use of a product beyond the point where it is discarded by its first user and is preferable to recycling or disposal.

Research has shown that reusing a product can reduce CO2 emissions and carbon footprint by more than 50% relative to the complete product life cycle.

Repair / Refurbish

Kola Project repairs and refurbishes items that are still reusable but have suffered minor damages. Our products are dematerialized with modular designs. Dematerialized products maximize resource effectiveness by reducing the mass of material types in the product. Many of our products are designed with about two or three raw materials, allowing us to repair or refurbish easily.

Modular design creates products with easily replaceable parts as opposed to having to replace the whole product. For example, if a modular designed couch breaks, you can simply replace the broken seat or the leg instead of the entire couch.

Remanufacture

Remanufacture is the process of recovering, disassembling, repairing and sanitizing components for resale. We use remanufacturing methods on products that are not salvageable via reuse or refurbish.

For example, a broken ceramic dish can turn into a lovely new dish designed using the Kintsugi method.

A shattered pile of glass can become beautiful crushed glass wall art such as Mary Hong’s Mystic River shown below.

Used napkins, tablecloths, shower curtains, rugs, pillows, and bedding can become stuffing for ottomans and throw pillows. Used wooden spoons or any other unusable wooden items can be firewood or kindling.

Recycle

Kola Project recycles products that have completely broken down. Through recycling, we are able to extract the original raw materials that created these products and use them to create new products. Recycling is the last step our products go through during the circular process. Although recycling can be emissions and energy-intensive, it still helps us not exploit virgin raw material resources on earth unnecessarily.