Instead of letting the clothes go to a landfill, where they can cause a host of environmental problems, Suay has rescued 50,000lbs of textiles so they can be cleaned, sorted and upcycled by professional designers and sewers. Since LA currently has no permanent textile recycling or collection, it’s up to groups like Suay to save as many textiles as possible before they get dumped or exported.
“To see the overwhelming influx of textiles donations here in Los Angeles in response to the devastating wildfires just shows how the current systems in place have failed us all,” said Suay’s co-founder and CEO Lindsay Rose Medoff. “We have to draw the connections to our everyday consumption and disposal habits. Until we draw these connections, the same overproduction that is impacting our climate and resulting in these disasters will continue to strengthen.”
Because you specifically called out a non-profit rather than the for-profits owned by private equity firms.
I see no difference. Goodwill, for example, is a profit company operating as non-profit. They used to be a place where your donations were made available to the public. My grandmother used to say, “if you have something nice that you won’t use, give it to someone who needs it.” She wasn’t rich rich but she had that “lost generation” money. All her clothes were designer. She would give them to goodwill so women could dress well and get jobs.
Today, anything with any value is collected at the donation site and shipped to a larger regional center where it is put online for auction.
Feel free to browse at https://shopgoodwill.com/
Then maybe Canadian and American Goodwill stores operate differently. Canada’s Goodwill stores are specifically set up to provide employment to people with physical, developmental, mental, emotional or social challenges. They are regionally overseen, have zero corporate ownership and the boards consist of volunteers.