Ali Larsen joined thousands of other Latter-day Saint women in October, standing in lines to get their hands on newly available sleeveless temple garments.
Like other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she fell in love with them immediately. The new design and fabrics “have been a godsend,” she says. “I overheat very easily. It’s phenomenal to have this cooler option, while still keeping my temple covenants.”
Also like others, Larsen has no plans to return to the earlier styles of the sacred apparel worn under everyday attire and produced and sold to faithful members to remind them of their promises to God.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ben and Ali Larsen recruit their daughters, Gwynee, Adi and Cate, as they prepare shipping labels and bags to help dispose of temple garments.
Unlike most others, though, this northern Utah mom of three knows how to dispose of older garments without the tedium of cutting out and destroying their symbolic markings by hand — as the church instructs.
A year ago, Larsen and her husband, Ben Larsen, were pondering what to do with three giant bags of worn-out garments. They wanted to get rid of the underclothing respectfully but in a less tiresome way. That’s when they came up with the idea that became Celestial Recycling — an eco-friendly and labor-friendly approach to discarding old garments.
All it takes is putting unwanted garments in a bag, then sending the bundle to the company, which shreds the contents and ships them to concrete plants — without touching them.
Their solution couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment for the 17.5 million-member faith. Barely a month after these new styles arrived in Utah and across the U.S., the couple’s recycling shop recorded its second highest number of orders.
Instead of one or two bags at a time, Ben Larsen says, customers were ordering 10 bags at a time.
Plus, a top Latter-day Saint leader known for his sustainability efforts, Gérald Caussé, recently was named an apostle.
Though this system is not endorsed by the church, the Larsens’ “goal and mission” with Celestial Recycling, the company’s website explains, “is to help all members become better stewards of this home we call Earth our Savior created for us.”
How it works
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ben Larsen shows how temple garments are shredded.
To create a recycle system, Ben Larsen, an attorney in Plain City, found a couple of Utah-based concrete plants that funnel garment fragments into alternative fuel.
They use “recycled garments to generate energy,” Celestial Recycling notes on its website, “making it a zero-waste and renewable source of power.”
Members buy a recyclable bag — ranging from $18 to $28, depending on the size — from the company, then put the used garments inside and seal it. They either mail the bag back or drop it off at shipping sites — listed on the website — in the Salt Lake City, Provo and Ogden areas.
From that point on, Ben Larsen says, human hands will never touch the contents of that bag again.
“It is designed for direct processing in a fiber shredder, where the contents are chopped into pieces typically smaller than a U.S. quarter,” the company says. “Additionally, the bag serves as an excellent alternative fuel for cement plants, eliminating the need for any separation.”
Once sliced up, the company adds, the materials “travel approximately 25 feet on a conveyor belt before being loaded onto a truck for transport to the cement plant, where they are incinerated at a staggering 2,500 degrees.”
Instead of “pulling natural gas out of the ground,” Ben Larsen says, “now fuel is going to be powered by garments.”
About 92% of the material “is converted to energy,” he says, while “8% is converted into ash, ground up and put into concrete as a binder.”
Indeed, he says in an interview, “your garments can end up back in the temple.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ben and Ali Larsen say their recycling business has picked up since the introduction of new sleeveless garment styles.
A big transition
Ali Larsen has heard many women say that “they want to dispose of or ‘retire’ their old garments” and to “update their garment drawer.”
That sentiment is echoed on social media, where woman after woman declares she will not go back to the old styles, so has no use for them.
“I will be replacing all of my current garments with the newer ones,” St. Louis resident Amy Keel Brown writes on social media. “Aside from being sleeveless, I find the new ones more comfortable.”
A Northern California member, Laurel Thatcher McNeil, echoes that sentiment. “I will never wear sleeves again,” she says. “I feel like I can breathe for the first time in nearly 50 years.”
Women like these may find themselves turning to Celestial Recycling for the garment overhaul.
For her part, Ali Larsen has enjoyed seeing this turnover.
It’s been fun to see devout members “keep their temple covenants, while enjoying these styles,” she says, adding, “The Lord wants us to be happy.”