Trash Talk #9: “Your Brand New Returns End Up in Landfill”
In a culture of convenience, online shopping is king. Rather than stepping foot into a crowded shopping mall and fighting your way through long checkout lines, it’s so much easier to order new outfits from your couch at home, knowing that you can simply return any sizes or styles that don’t work. After all, these items will be repackaged and eventually sent on to their next doting owner, right?
It’s not so simple. Most often than not, returned items (even perfectly good ones) are simply sent to landfill. In fact, 5 billion pounds of waste each year are generated through returns.
Why is this?
A journalist’s expose on this topic revealed that most common reason companies simply discard items rather than repurpose them is simple: it’s cheaper. It’s also less complicated— they don’t have to find the resources, technology, or personnel to handle all those returns.
When a product is returned, a company needs to evaluate whether the item is still up to code, if it’s been tampered with, or if it needs to be repackaged. Handling the nuances between different categories of products requires time and money: a new pair of sneakers in perfect condition, but in an opened shoebox with untied laces, needs to be categorized and processed differently than a pair of sneakers with a manufacturing defect. It’s often more profitable to simply get rid of perfectly good products than to accommodate these nuances.
Ultimately, this growing dump of tossed textiles is “an ecological nightmare — a waste of resources, a source of pollution, and another cause of overflowing landfills.”
What’s our role in it?
While the moral priorities driving these choices could be attributed to a glorified practice of capitalism, a separate but related culture of global consumerism contributes. A 2016 report by Greenpeace noted “Clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014…The average person buys 60% more items of clothing every year”.
Additionally, online shopping makes it all too easy to buy and try at home, then send back what’s unwanted.
David Sobie, founder of returns management company Happy Returns, notes, “Return rates for e-commerce are typically three to four times higher than if you’re shopping at a brick-and-mortar store… If I’m buying something from my phone, for example, it can be hard to tell if something is black or gray or charcoal or heather — so maybe I’ll just buy all of them and try them on at home to see which I like.”
So, what can we do?
- Shop in store if possible — you’ll likely buy less, and probably be happier with your purchases anyway knowing that they fit right.
- Purchase second-hand from thrift and consignment stores, to keep existing materials in circulation.
- Consider if you can re-sell the item directly yourself rather than returning, whether it’s to a friend, at a thrift store, or online re-selling platform such as Poshmark.
- Donate or gift the item to a charity.
- In your next necessary purchase, consider prioritizing companies that are implementing circular business models. Whether it’s innovative clothing brands such as For Days who have buyback programs, shoe companies such as Thousand Fell who created a 100% closed loop sneaker, or long-term staples such as Patagonia who are authentically committed to counteracting consumerism with their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, there are plenty of sustainable ways to obtain the items you need without creating unnecessary waste.
As we enter the upcoming Thanksgiving (and Black Friday) season, consider how you can practice the true intent of this holiday — by being grateful for what you already have, rather than primarily leveraging it for that annual unfettered shopping spree.
