In the wake of the LA fires, many of us are thinking about how we can help displaced families restart their lives. It’s resulted in an outpouring of clothing donations, but not all of those donations have been so great. Actress Kristen Bell shared on Instagram that when she was sorting donations, lots of them were basically trash. While she was critiqued for this, she gets at an important issue: sorting clothing donations is a lot of work and “donating” shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to appropriate recycling. In fact, so much of what was donated was so poorly organized that Trashie had to step in to offer their sorting services.

With a little more time and minimal effort, we can do a better job of keeping clothes out of the landfill and helping people in our communities all at once (wherever you are and whenever you donate):

1. Find a local organizations that need your help. Look beyond the big ones you know, to find ones that may have a more direct relationship with people in need where you are. This could be groups like Altadena Girls (a group started by teen girls for teen girls), a local homeless support organization, domestic violence shelters, refugee resettlement, and more. 

2. Sort out items that are stained or have holes. These items can be responsibly recycled through Trashie (and you can get points with them for recycling that can be used on sustainable brands like Jackalo). If you have Jackalo items that are stained or have holes, you can still recycle them through our TradeUp program, and get store credit for future purchases.

3. Organize clothes by age or size and gender (unisex is ok too!) Fold the clothes neatly as you organize them and then put them in bags or boxes. Label the bags or write on them with Sharpie, to save the volunteer staff time!

All of this is a reminder, however, that over-consumption paired with poor recycling systems, means there’s a LOT of waste (especially apparel waste) that ends up in landfills and may never break down. Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more on how you can reduce the amount of