Tell your governor: Don’t let companies trash and burn clothes

Governor,

America is making more clothes than ever before. And of the billions of pieces of clothing made every year, it’s estimated that 30% will never be sold. Instead, piles of unsold or returned clothes are sent to landfills or burned — even though the clothes are in near-perfect condition.

Don’t let retailers in our state continue to trash and burn perfectly good clothes.

I urge you to create a policy to restrict retailers from disposing of (trashing or burning) unsold clothing or clothing that has been returned in like-new condition. The policy should also restrict retailers from sending unworn, unsold clothing to another state or country for the purpose of disposal.

Instead, clothes should be resold, donated, reused or repurposed with textile-to-textile recycling. And ultimately, the fashion industry shouldn’t be making so many extra clothes in the first place.