Luxury fashion brand Burberry announced this week it will stop burning its unsold inventory.
The company burned more than $34.6 million worth of its clothing and other goods in the fiscal year that ended in June. The year before, Burberry BRBY, -1.04% burned almost as much. Companies sometimes destroy unsold products to maintain their exclusivity, but environmental groups have long taken issue with the practice. (The company also announced it will stop using real fur on its products.)
Clothing waste has recently become part of a larger conversation about how to make consumer products better for the environment. The amount of textiles that become waste is projected to grow to over 35 billion pounds in 2019 from 25 billion pounds in 2009, according to the Council for Textile Recycling, a nonprofit organization based in Abingdon, Md.
Of the 82 pounds of textiles the U.S. produces per resident per year, only 15% is donated or recycled, and 85% ends up in landfills, according the Council for Textile Recycling has found. Rubber, leather and textiles make up about 9% of the total municipal solid waste that has to be discarded in the U.S. each year, even after efforts to recycle or compost it, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
Environmental groups often blame inexpensive “fast fashion” clothing brands. Some of these retailers have also taken action to help prevent waste. H&M HMB, +0.20% has started its own recycling program, in which consumers can drop off unwanted clothes (H&M clothes, or not) at their stores year-round. Once H&M collects the clothes, it sends them to sorting plants which determine how they can be used or recycled.
Madewell, a women’s clothing brand owned by J.Crew, accepts used jeans from any brand, and gives consumers who bring them in $20 off a jeans purchase from Madewell.
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