Yesterday the Times reported that destroyed new and unworn merchandise from H&M and Wal-Mart had been found in trash bags on 35th Street. Though after ten attempts by the Times, H&M didn’t comment for yesterday’s article, a spokeswoman finally offers this today:
“It will not happen again,” said Nicole Christie, a spokeswoman for H & M in New York. “We are committed 100 percent to make sure this practice is not happening anywhere else, as it is not our standard practice.”
Ms. Christie said it was H & M’s policy to donate unworn clothing to charitable groups. She said that she did not know why the store on 34th Street was slashing the clothes, and that the company was checking to make sure that none of its other stores were doing so.
A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said basically the same thing — she didn’t know why their clothes were destroyed and dumped when it’s company policy to donate them.
The CUNY grad student who discovered the bags of clothes and tipped off the Times had written H&M’s headquarters in Sweden but received no response. H&M just launched a Garden Collection made of sustainable, organic, and recycled materials such as PET bottles and textile waste, which makes the hole-punching situation that much more embarrassing.
Clothing Retailer Says It Will No Longer Destroy Unworn Garments [NYT]
H&M’s Organic and Sustainable Garden Collection Heralds Greener Pastures [Pipeline/Refinery 29]
Earlier: H&M Destroys and Throws Out Perfectly Good Unworn Clothing
