Children's Clothing Murdered In Plain Sight - No Charges Filed

You know the mainstream media exemplifies the green ethic in every way, shape and form. We're told that we MUST recycle, reuse and repair in order to save the planet.

We're also told, "waste not, want not" in various forms. People are starving, people are cold, they lack health care. Children go to school without winter jackets and gloves. The mantra of "help the homeless" is drilled into our psyche because, well, because there are more homeless people in this country than ever before.

So you be the judge of the standard procedures by these "cut-ups" at Wal-Mart and H&M.

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable.

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

The New York Times points out that one-third of the city's population is poor, which makes this behavior not only wasteful and sad, but downright irresponsible. Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised that these items were found, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity. When reporters went around the corner from H&M to a collections drop-off for charity organization New York Cares, spokesperson Colleen Farrell said, “We’d be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us."

After several days of no response from H&M, the company made a statement today, promising to stop destroying the garments at the midtown Manhattan location. They said they will donate the items to charity. H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said, "It will not happen again," and that the company would make sure none of the other locations would do so either. Hopefully that's the final word.

End

I don't know about you but I see poor people. I see them every day. I see them everywhere. One would think that huge corporations such as Wal-Mart and H&M, whoever they are, would have policies in place that wouldn't be 100% wasteful. That's just my opinion. This whole green thing is just propaganda.

Favorite

0 members favorited this

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Jeff on January 8, 2010 at 9:24pm: This was also a policy at a department store I worked security at as a teenager, 18, and I was required as security to oversee employees that would then destroy merchandise before it was discarded. I didn't think about it much then but that was almost 50 years ago.

Comment by Robert D on January 8, 2010 at 5:18pm: FYI , I have all ways been told this practice is illegal in Georgia , one of the problems with giving something away , is some of these people being helped, screw over the retailers by returning the items for cash . at some knock off stores they cut the tag and mark it with a permanent marker but many items are not easily marked . But the pratice of throwing things away that someone could use is distastefull to me . My wife used to get decorations from Target in columbus ga for our church , this year the new manager REQUIRES that these things are destroyed before putting it in the sealed dumpster!! Such a thoughtfull and kindhearted fellow ........ [ major asshole]

Comment by Marklar on January 8, 2010 at 3:54pm: Since the clothing was never worn in the first place wouldn't donating them to charities be uni-cycling or maybe origi-cycling rather than recycling? Just a thought.

Comment by Jeff on January 8, 2010 at 10:39am: Thanks Tara. Yes, our society is absolutely shameless. Sad, isn't it?

Comment by Tara on January 8, 2010 at 9:31am: You're right Jeff, 99% of the green movement is propaganda IMO. Most of it is more about control than actually wanting to save the planet. They love telling everybody how they should conduct their lives, what light bulbs they should use (the mercury filled kind, lovely), where you should set your thermastat at, how much water you should or shouldn't use, ect..... but they get the "get out of jail free" card and get do what they please. It's hypocrisy at it finest!

It is sad to see so much wastefulness when poverty is on the rise and there are record numbers of homeless out on the streets or in shelters. Whatever would possess them to not only throw away unsold clothing but to also hack them up, making them unwearable. I don't get it!

I am a superviser at a retail store and we try to salvage as much as we can. Most of the salvaged items go to Goodwill or other local charities. With that being said, we still throw away so much that it makes my head spin at times.

Yeah, so much for recycling right?