Did you know that the average American throws away about 80 pounds of used clothing per person per year, and that 95% of the clothing that gets thrown away could be recycled or upcycled?
That’s just on the consumer end of things. When it comes to larger Retailers and E-Tailers, the companies who are making this clothing, there are larger issues at hand. In the past, we would get frantic phone calls from some of our larger customers asking how much it would cost to destroy an entire truckload of apparel that may have been late to arrive and missed the selling period. We would also get similar calls to destroy a shipment that may have had a bad quality issue.
As many companies are focusing on sustainability, they have begun to hire entire departments dedicated to educating their co-workers on the use of sustainable materials while educating their customers about the long-term effects of throwing the garments out once they are done wearing them. Many retailers are now taking the clothing back and setting up second-hand stores on their websites for slightly used apparel and shoes. This will certainly help, but the bigger picture is a little scary.
Darn It has been partnering over the last few years with not only the Quality Control department but the Sustainability department as well as most retailers are attempting to salvage any potential damages from the landfills across the country.
One of our customers called us this spring with that exact issue. What to do with approximately 8,000 men’s short sleeve shirts that had many different issues with them from open seams and stains to wrinkles and crooked labels. It was bad enough that our customer was having the conversation of destroying the shipment when someone in their conference room said NO WAY. They called the Darn It Apparel Repair Team to see if we could help and salvage what we could to get this onto the shelves.
Our team inspected all 8,000 units and were able stitch and repair the many open seams, spot clean 1,000’s of the shirts to get rid of the oil stains from the factory’s sewing machines, and finally steam the wrinkles out and fix the crooked labels. Darn It was able to repair 90% of the shipment and get those shirts back into first quality condition for sale in stores and online.
The other 10% that weren’t exactly perfect were donated to 2 local charities. Before donating the units, our customer had us remove the labels and other intellectual property from the garments. The charities were able to give the garments away to those in need and the Retailer was able to get a tax write off for the donation.
This was a win-win for everyone, and nothing was placed in a landfill. Call the Darn It Apparel Repair Team today and partner with us to help you continue your sustainability mission!
