Published April 9, 2026 04:00AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Imagine you\u2019re browsing the gently used gear at an REI Re\/Supply and come across a sleeping bag. It\u2019s in good shape and priced right. You need a new sleeping bag anyway for camping this summer, but what if this one\u2019s teeming with the previous owner\u2019s germs? Ick.<\/p>\n
But wait\u2014alongside the price tag, you notice another tag certifying it has been cleaned by a company called Tersus Solutions. The ick-factor fades, and you head straight to checkout.<\/p>\n That little tag? It means your new-to-you sleeping bag wasn\u2019t just cleaned on a normal soap and spin cycle. In a Denver warehouse, this bag was sealed inside a massive steel drum and flooded with carbon dioxide (CO2). Under pressure, the gas turned liquid, moving through the smallest pores of the fabric to pull out dirt, body oils, and whatever else it picked up in the backcountry.<\/p>\n Not a drop of water was used in the process\u2014Tersus\u2019s key differentiator. The Colorado-based waterless cleaning company partners with outdoor retailers like REI, Stio, Arc\u2019teryx, The North Face, Cotopaxi, and Lululemon to power the logistics of in-house repair and recommerce programs, restoring gear to its fullest potential and getting items back into a customer\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n Historically, brands make a product, sell it, and move on. Once a jacket or sleeping bag leaves the store, there\u2019s little visibility into where it ends up unless it comes back as a return. Sometimes it\u2019s reshelved, but often it\u2019s diverted instead to liquidators, landfills, or incineration\u2014where it\u2019s broken down, buried, or burned, releasing carbon and other pollutants into the air and wasting perfectly good resources embedded in the material.<\/p>\n But as more outdoor brands take responsibility for what happens to gear after the sale, Tersus Solutions has become an alternative for those aiming for circularity and minimizing waste.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll find a way to revalorize or remonetize that product,\u201d says Tersus Solutions CEO Peter Whitcomb, who once led REI\u2019s circular commerce team. \u201cThe highest use is ideally a second home.\u201d<\/p>\n When Tersus first started out in 2009, it manufactured machines for industrial and commercial laundry operations in the hopes of replacing traditional dry cleaning, a notoriously (and ironically) dirty industry. (One of the most commonly used dry cleaning solvents is perchloroethylene, a potential human carcinogen, according to the U.S. Department of Labor<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Among the first buyers of a Tersus machine was Patagonia, says Whitcomb. By 2017, Patagonia returned the equipment, finding it difficult to dedicate the internal resources necessary to keep the cleaners churning (especially since the initiative was outside their wheelhouse of manufacturing and merchandising gear). This shift prompted Tersus to evolve; if brands wanted to outsource labor, Tersus would fill the gap, transitioning into a dual role as a manufacturer and a full-service commercial cleaner.<\/p>\n These specialized washing machines come with a few caveats. Firstly, they\u2019re enormous. One model has a 400-liter drum, another has a 700-liter drum, whereas your typical at-home washing machine drum is between 50 and 150 liters. Second, they require huge tanks of CO2\u2014picture the vessels behind a brewery\u2014to continuously power wash cycles.<\/p>\n Right now, Tersus gets its CO2 by \u201crecycling\u201d it from a nearby ethanol plant. The gas is a natural byproduct of the plant\u2019s fermentation process\u2014so instead of that CO2 ending up in the atmosphere, Tersus captures it and puts it to work. Whitcomb\u2019s dream is to eventually recapture CO\u2082 directly from ambient air. About 95 percent of the CO2 is reused from cycle to cycle, Whitcomb says.<\/p>\n Before gear is loaded into the vat, Tersus employees evaluate, sort, and label items to ultimately determine if they\u2019re acceptable for a brand\u2019s recommerce program. If they don\u2019t qualify, roughly 10 to 20 percent of items are recycled, upcycled, or donated instead.<\/p>\n Because liquid CO2 behaves more like a solvent than water, it moves through even the tightest woven fabrics without swelling fibers, leaving soapy residue, or stripping finishes. Instead, it lifts out the contaminants that, over time, can degrade waterproof membranes and insulation.<\/p>\n Those contaminates and particulates are then collected and disposed of \u201cin accordance with all local, state, and federal environmental regulations\u201d according to the company.<\/p>\n After the cycle ends, the machine depressurizes and the items\u2014up to 200 garments or 12 sleeping bags in the 700-liter drum\u2014come out completely dry. Conventional washing, by contrast, often requires multiple dryer cycles where heat can degrade technical coatings. Plus, the typical high-efficiency wet washers and dryers use about 90 percent more energy than the Tersus machine, notes Whitcomb.<\/p>\n Cleaning with liquid CO2 is a newer technology, so there aren\u2019t many studies out yet or experts familiar with the approach. A white paper authored by Tersus<\/a> for the California Energy Commission and U.S. Navy found that compared to conventional water-based industrial laundry systems, the CO2 system saved 15 percent more energy, water, and natural gas combined.<\/p>\n An independent study from 2022<\/a> found that liquid CO2 effectively removed an average 95.36 percent of carcinogenic contaminants from firefighter gear compared to a conventional wash which only removed 68.77 percent. (Tersus also washes firefighter gear.)<\/p>\n Tersus is scaling its operation, including opening a fifth facility in Calgary, Canada later this year.<\/p>\n But the company is only one piece of a much larger system, with only so much capacity to clean, repair, and resell. When Stio sends products to Tersus, for example, items that get graded with an A or B get cleaned and then sold through the brand\u2019s Second Turn program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Items that receive a lower grade in sorting are sent directly\u2014uncleaned\u2014to Gear Trade in Salt Lake City, says Aaron Provine, CEO of the used outdoor clothing marketplace.<\/p>\n \u201cThat stuff still needs a place to go,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where we come in.\u201d According to Provine, Gear Trade customers are savvy and more willing to put in the effort to restore a product if it\u2019s dirty or torn, especially at the discounted price. Meanwhile, gear that\u2019s been cleaned and restored to a like-new quality inevitably has a higher price tag that makes it a better fit for other retailers.<\/p>\n And the harsh truth is that from a brand\u2019s perspective, not every item makes sense to save. Cleaning and repair come at a cost, and the resale price has to cover it. \u201cWe have to make this as viable economically for a brand because there\u2019s always a CFO or somebody who says \u2018Does this make money?\u2019\u201d Whitcomb says.<\/p>\n The items that clear that bar\u2014survive grading, logistics, cleaning\u2014are the ones that actually make it back out into the world. Which is what makes a used sleeping bag at REI\u2019s Re\/Supply feel surprisingly valuable and rarified.<\/p>\n Tersus\u2019s hope is that it doesn\u2019t stay on the rack long; it goes home with you.<\/p>\n <\/div>\nTersus Handles the Dirty Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Using CO2 as a Cleaning Tool<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The Limits of Circularity in Textiles<\/strong><\/h2>\n