Tell Forever 21 that Waste is Out of Fashion!

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Tell Forever 21 that Waste is Out of Fashion!

Forever 21 CEO Winnie Park,

The fast fashion business model is built on waste. Clothing companies like Forever 21 are constantly churning out the latest trends at incredibly cheap prices. But, when a new clothing shipment arrives, fashion retailers take the “old” clothes off the shelf and toss them in the trash- brand new clothes that have never been worn. The result is mountains of textile waste being sent to landfills and incinerators.

Globally, only 20% of all textiles are recycled or repurposed, sending the other 92 million tons of clothing to landfills each year- a major reason why clothing and textile waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the US.

Many consumers are already exploring less wasteful ways to be fashionable by turning to thrift stores and second-hand clothes, repairing their existing clothes, and even repurposing old clothes into new household items. But to get at the root of the problem, we need fast fashion companies to act. Forever 21 is one of the largest fast fashion retailers in the U.S., and could be an industry leader by publicly committing to never burning or trashing unworn, unsold clothing.

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OSPIRG Students

To: Forever 21 CEO Winnie Park,
From: [Your Name]

In the United States, we generate enough textile waste to fill the Mall of America — the largest shopping mall in the country — every six days. Millions of the clothing items that end up as waste are never even worn.

Throwing away brand new clothes means that the resource-intensive process required to make new clothes must then be repeated over and over again, which has a huge negative impact on our natural resources and exacerbates climate change.

Waste is a design flaw. Help lead the fashion industry to a more sustainable future by publicly committing Forever 21 to not trashing or burning new, unsold clothing.