I loathe reading stories of corporate waste like the one in yesterday's NY Times about H&M and a contractor for Wal-Mart that routinely destroy unsold clothing and add it to landfills rather than donate it to charities that help the poor. What about worry for the planet and recycling? I suppose neither company knows we have a recession going on with record unemployment? Not to mention NY has one of the coldest winter's in years with more homeless than ever? And to think that the HQ of New York Cares is just around the corner repels me even further. I don't shop Wal-Mart because of their policies on pretty much everything, but I will now be adding H&M to the list unless they rectify the situation stat. Read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06about.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Thanks to WendyB for today's update: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/hm-says-it-will-stop-destroying-unworn-clothing/
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06 January 2010
7 comments:
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Did you see H&M's statement that this was against their corporate policy and that they're investigated the actions of the particular store? Haven't seen the results of said investigation though.
ReplyDeleteOops...here's the update. They said they'll stop doing it! I don't know why they don't sell it off-price like any other retailer would but I guess the stuff is so cheap and so close to trash anyway that it's not worth transporting anywhere to sell for 50 cents! http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/hm-says-it-will-stop-destroying-unworn-clothing/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update -- I'll add to the post! Took both H&M and Wal-Mart a day to come up with the answer eh? The blatant polluting and disregard for charity really bother me with this story. Well at least that crap won't go in the landfills, and will clothe people who might otherwise have naught. I don't get it either, even the Salvation Army used to buy by the pound -- at least they'd get some return and not pollute in the process.
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Suzanne
That is so fucked up, I often wondered about what companies did with their unsold stuff. I was under the mislead impression that they cut it up into scraps for whatever. If I ever go to europe again, I won't be buying their stuff - but I would buy it 2nd hand - which I think wouldn't contribute to the landfill - correct me if I'm wrong though :)
ReplyDeletedaywalker, usually companies do either sell for scrap or donate to charity. I know where I live the Goodwill charity shops get a lot of Target's old stock (and sometimes mark them inappropriately -- something from Target's "Dollar Spot" with the $1 clearly marked on the label will be marked 2 or 3 bucks, huh?) I'd say, yeah buy it 2nd hand if it looks like it'll hold up -- most of their quality isn't very good to start and doesn't have much of a "shelf life" and my view is that unless its a very trendy item I won't want to wear next season, I'm going for the best quality I can afford so I won't have to keep consuming and filling landfills with unusable garbage. You can find much better quality 2nd hand. One of these days I'll do posts on my finds over the years -- remarkable what people discard, many times unused! Thanks for stopping by and commenting too!
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Suzanne
I followed the link when you posted it, but got so...this is very dusturbing and ugly. Sometimes H&M rents a temporary place and opens an outlet, and yes, it all costs 50 cents. I'm sure that they still make a profit.
ReplyDeletedust, I know exactly how you felt, I was aghast and repulsed by the article and had a hard time reading through. I bet you're right and at 50 cents they're still making something. Geesh, we have to worry about the impact of buying mass produced items and what it contributes to the downfall of the planet, then to see this bullshit happen? Its irresponsible and frankly stupid to toss unsold clothing. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
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Suzanne