There have been a number of reports in the press about staff at Primark cutting up perfectly good clothing – and the high street store has admitted that it has a policy of shredding faulty clothes rather than giving items to charity shops to be re-used. Primark have said they destroy clothig rather than risk sub-standard items beig re-sold which Primark feels would give it a bad reputation, even if sold from charity shops. Most commentators have pointed out that simply cutting off the labels of faulty good which were still wearable would suffice – and that in light of recent disasters such as the floods in Pakistan, it is appalling to destroy perfectly good clothes. The Primark shredding follows on from a story earlier this year when bags of clothing were found as refuse outside New York branches of the Swedish clothing chain H&M and outside Walmart, in one of the coldest winters in living memory. The clothes had been slashed or punched through with holes. Its not all bad- Marks & Spencer now asks its customers to donate unwanted items to Oxfam and rewards customers with a £5 vouncer, and another high street retailer, Monsoon, donates faulty items to Newlife, a UK charity that helps children born with disabilities.
