I was reading through some New York Times articles this morning, and stumbled across a short piece on clothing retailers’ practice of destroying and then discarding clothing that is unsold. H&M and Wal-Mart are targeted, although I have trouble believing that they’re the only guilty parties.
It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly.
I am simultaneously disappointed and unsurprised that these companies would, at least in some instances, destroy unsold clothing instead of donating it to those who are in need. Especially when, in one case, a donation point was just around the corner from the dumpster where the clothes were discarded.
Hopefully the publishing of this article will serve to put some pressures on companies that are doing these sorts of things, and hopefully they will start doing something intelligent and worthwhile with unsold merchandise.
via About New York – Clothes Discarded by H and M in Manhattan Are First Destroyed – NYTimes.com.
2 Comments
Wow. I cannot believe that is happening. Thanks for posting this. It was a good read
Most companies actually do this Cody. I even remember a time when the Gap in Milwaukee had some water damage. They had to throw all of the clothes out due to “tax purposes”. I thought this was why we had washing machines? Or at least someone who can’t afford clothes. I am pretty sure Target donates all the leftovers to goodwill though.