LindaM

So many of these wasteful practices are a direct result of people trying to cheat ('returning' items thrown away) or litigation. Businesses have now been 'trained' by these abusers to do ridiculous things. And as always, if you want change you have to make it more worthwhile to change than to keep up the current practices, and find a way to have the ear of the people who can enact the change.

VickyS

In the San Francisco Bay Area we have a somewhat new not-for-profit company who solicits any leftover materials from the Garment District of SF. They go and pickup the materials, scraps, ribbons, etc which would otherwise go to the local dumps. The material is sorted and given away for free once a month or more. Anyone can join their membership and get this free material. They even have special give-away dates for school teachers or others who deal with the public. All they request is that anything made not be sold in large quantities. In fact they hold boutiques at least twice a year to show off and sell what folks have made with these leftovers.

They can do this because the cost to dump the materials in the SF Bay Area is extreme, so it is cheaper for the manufacturers of clothing and other fabric type materials to get rid of their scraps this way rather than pay to dump the stuff. I have not heard if the Joann's in this area is contributing to this company.

There have been some really nice things come through this group. It really helps my quilt guild get large amounts of similar types of material to make kits for our community quilt program and for our prison quilt project.

By having one charity coordinate the material dispersal with the rest of the charities and groups in the area, it takes the donor companies out of the loop of having to decide who gets the stuff next (so they don't have to get into the politics of keeping the competing local charities happy).

Best thing: The material gets used rather than take up valuable space in our landfill. The families who get these quilts have been happy, and the guild members have been happy. It's a true win/win situation.

Oksewnsew

I worked at Hancocks & Joanns and YES, they are told by the corporate office to DESTROY, either discontinued or no saleable items.. All the discontinued patterns? - ripped the covers off, put guts in the trash and THEN poured bleach into the bag before going to the dumpster!!! We weren't even allowed to take ones we liked. Just a total waste of products. I just don't understand the reasoning behind corporate's ideas! They could offer items at 10/1.00 rather than destroy products, or why not just donate to places. Yet they talk about how much product is stolen!!! It IS a total waste, and positively no sense in it!!!

primbears

DH worked produce for a very large grocery chain. They dumped tons of good food, not out of date, just not "pretty". If a banana had one spot, out it goes. It made me sick, him too, as it could go to shelters but not to be. I always wanted to let the tv stations know so they could monitor and tell America what is happening.

gsbuffalo

yes it is sad and very true. I ran a food chain and everything written off was covered with bleach before placed int he dumpster. one time the frozen foods went down and hams were accounted for and then sliced and covered with bleach to avoid a law suit. sad but the sign of the times. can sue even it is put to trash.

bjnicholson

My DFIL, the salesman, always said, "the bottom line is the bottom line." Everything is done to make the bottom line look good.

newbiequilter

I understand that, but this is the same JoAnn's store where I saw flawed fabric rolled back on the bolt and put out for sale the day after I refused to purchase it. OK I am going to take a leap of faith and write to JA corporate and see what I hear back.....probably a "canned" reply such as I received from the JCP screaming ad that has been running for the last several days.

newbiequilter

I have sent an email to JA corporate - let's see what I hear back - if anything.

annpryor

How very sad.

mamaquilts

I worked for HL years ago, our manager would go nuts when he found people digging in the dumpster. He even went as far as to get itching powder to dump in it to try and get people to stop digging. We were to brake everything down little pieces to try and stop it.