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Dear Dot,
I recently came across a New York Times story about dumpster diving and the crazy “returns” economy, whereby most of what we consumers return to stores actually just gets thrown out. Sometimes I get a gift or purchase something and then decide I don’t want it. But I don’t want to be part of the problem. Help?
– Lori
The Short Answer: Our returns (an estimated five billion pounds of them annually in the U.S.) do not always go directly to landfill, but often end up there nonetheless. Some companies will try to resell returned items through discount retailers, but if the items still don’t sell, they will end up in landfill. To avoid being part of the problem if you’re shopping online, ensure you know your measurements; shop on websites with customer support; donate or regift items that you don’t want; and opt for in-person shopping to be sure the item fits and is what you want.
Dear Lori,
Dot has become a dedicated second-hand shopper, but I do, occasionally, impulse shop items that end up not fitting properly or failing to live up to their online allure. To address your question, however, Dot is going to turn it over to the capable Char Kelly, a recent fashion design grad, one half of Bluedot’s Secondhand Sisters, and a more dedicated shopper than I. Take it away (no pun intended!), Char:
We all want clothes that make us feel and look good, and sometimes a new purchase or order just doesn’t do the job, so we either return or exchange the garment. As someone who formerly detested trying on clothes in-store, I have had to return my purchases on more than one occasion. We imagine that our returned items will end up back on the racks and, eventually, in someone else’s shopping bag. But, as the New York Times article you referenced made clear, Lori, those clothes often have a far different future than we imagined. What’s gone awry?
As someone who loves both fashion and sustainability (what can I say, Lori? I contain multitudes), I regret to confirm that it is highly possible, indeed probable, that, as this BBC story details, your returned merchandise is sitting in a landfill somewhere. Even worse, it was probably sent on a joyride before settling down in its eternal grave. Before consigning your return to landfill, companies often ship it to discount retailers to give it one, final chance to make itself attractive to a purchaser. If it doesn’t sell there, then off to the landfill it goes.
But, let’s veer slightly off course from returned merchandise to drop our jaws at the waste in the fashion industry before some items are even purchased once. Indeed, landfill might be the least shocking way that some brands have disposed of goods. In 2018, whistleblowers revealed that luxury brand Burberry destroyed unsold merchandise — bags, clothes, perfume worth millions of dollars — and they weren’t the only ones. Louis Vuitton, H&M, Cartier, and Urban Outfitters, and others were exposed for (or admitted to) doing the same. Why? The consensus among industry experts is that, to maintain their brand’s exclusivity and avoid any possibility of excess merchandise being sold at marked down prices, companies can’t have excess merchandise. (God forbid, a Burberry handbag falls into the hands of someone who’s not fabulously well-to-do. Gasp!) Timmo Rissanen, an associate dean at Parsons School of Design and a professor of fashion design and sustainability, told Vox that these brands “see discounts and donating as a way to devalue their brand. They want to control how and where and at what price their goods are sold.”
Following public scrutiny, Burberry made a public statement promising they would no longer destroy their unsold merchandise. Unfortunately, there’s no system in place for policing such promises, and there remains little to no public information about whether brands continue to destroy their merchandise. Also unknown is how they destroy it, though according to Rissanen, burning and shredding are popular methods.
A major reason that there’s so much unsold merchandise is that the fashion industry moves fast, making last season’s releases, well, too last season. And another reason for clothing winding up in landfill is that fast fashion — I’m looking at you Shein, H&M, and so many others — produces clothes that aren’t designed to last.
There are other ways companies dispose of excess goods, some good … some definitely not. Recycled clothes can be made into insulation. Goodwill Industries in Canada offers “worn-and-torn” campaigns, where they accept the stained t-shirts, the torn sheets, the tattered towels, and so on. According to their site, donations get transformed into “automotive materials, reclaimed fibres for new textiles, and sustainable innovation testing materials.”
Overstock items (along with some of our clothes donations) from the Global North are often exported to countries in Africa, Latin America, and South America. Ghana, among other African countries, receives mountains of clothes from the west that they have dubbed “Oburoni Wawu”, or “dead white man’s clothes.” During a project run by Greenpeace, it took only a week to fill a 20-foot shipping container with 4.6 tons of clothes that locals couldn’t sell — which was roughly half of their goods. Some African countries continue to debate the authorization of secondhand clothing imports, with many arguing that it stifles the local textile economy, while others insist that the widespread employment from the secondhand market is worth keeping.
Rissanen also shares that natural fibres can be spun into yarn and used again, though all zippers, buttons, and hardware must first be removed from the garments, which means paying employees to do this work. Often, the cheapest option is to simply destroy overstock.
What can be done to reduce waste from returns?
Thankfully, there are some proposed solutions for both companies and consumers. BBC Earth did a dive into Optoro as a potential solution. Founded in 2008 with the vision of a future in which returned and unsold products could still contribute to a circular economy, Optoro offers software to retailers that helps reduce waste via an online resale store called Blinq, where companies can directly sell their overstock merchandise and reroute returned and excess product to Amazon, eBay, or donation centers, to reduce the amount of items going to landfill. In its 2023 Report, Optoro cited that its software diverted 8.03 million pounds of waste from landfills; sent 45.9 million products to reuse channels; and prevented the release of 43.81 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Companies using their services include Gap, Best Buy, and Steve Madden.
Creating a large-scale solution to reduce waste is a great step towards sustainability. But until every company adopts an environmentally conscious approach like the one offered by Optoro, we can control our own returns by following some simple steps:
- Measure yourself with the size charts on companies’ websites to ensure a good fit
- Donate or gift unwanted items
- Shop on sites that provide clear info and customer support to help you get it right the first time
- Shift your shopping to bricks-and-mortar shops. This will lead to fewer impulse purchases and give you the chance to try on items to ensure a perfect fit, as well as the pleasure of face-to-face shopping.
The staggering reality of the waste resulting from returns and overstock can demoralize even the most dedicated fashionista. Although we cannot control large companies, we can take steps to reduce the number of returns we personally make.
Returnlessly,
Char (standing in for Dot)
