John,

New clothes are hitting the racks in stores like Forever 21 nearly every day. But, what happens to the clothes taken off the racks to make room for new merchandise?

Here's the ugly truth: A lot of these unsold clothes are sent straight to the landfill or burned in incinerators. And this is by design: Fast fashion retailers are overproducing clothes by 30 to 40% each season -- clothing they know won't be sold.1

PIRG is working to slow this endless cycle of overproduction and waste by calling on Forever 21 to publicly commit to not trashing or burning its overstock. Add your name.

The world is producing more clothing than ever -- more than 100 billion pieces a year, or twice as much as in 2000. As a result of all of this fast fashion, textile waste has become the fastest-growing waste stream in the United States.2,3

As clothing waste piles up in landfills, the pollution doesn't stop there. Textiles are incredibly resource-intensive, so every time we make new clothing to replace what was just thrown away, we are wasting even more raw materials.

For example, making one cotton t-shirt requires more than 700 gallons of water and releases the same greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for about 10 miles. These are not resources we should be throwing away without a second thought.4

This practice of destroying unsold clothing can't go on forever. Will you sign our petition calling on one of Forever 21, one of the largest fast fashion retailers, to publicly commit to not trashing its overstock?

A company like Forever 21 that operates hundreds of stores can have a big impact on how much clothing becomes trash.

By changing its practices, not only can Forever 21 keep its own merchandise out of landfills, but push other companies in the industry to adopt more sustainable practices, too.

But we need to show the clothing store that wasteful business models are out of style.

We're calling on Forever 21 to be a leader in the fashion industry and publicly commit to not trashing or burning unsold clothes. Will you join us?

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Aslaug Magnusdottir, "How Fashion Manufacturing Will Change After The Coronavirus," May 13, 2020
2. Celeste Meiffren-Swango and Louis Sokolow, "The high cost of fast fashion," PIRG, November 22, 2023.
3. "White Paper: Textile Recovery in the U.S.," Resource Recycling Systems, last accessed July 23, 2024.
4. Janet Domenitz and Celeste Meiffren-Swango, "What's the problem with fast fashion?" U.S. PIRG, August 7, 2023.

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