Waste Repurpose Workshops

Written by Timo Rissanen | Mar 09, 2010.

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In January The New York Times wrote about Walmart and H&M discarding mutilated, production sample garments. Cynthia Magnus had discovered the garments in the trash outside each store and then negotiated with Parsons to save the Walmart garments. Unfortunately H&M had slashed theirs beyond salvation.

Each t-shirt, hoodie and pair of sweat pants – unworn kids’ clothes – had a circular hole punched into it. Perhaps the biggest irony was discovering that many of the t-shirts were made from organic cotton jersey. It is likely this was done at the factories in Bangladesh and Thailand; as one of the tags revealed, these were sample garments. From conversations it has become apparent that mutilating sample garments is widespread. It would be worthwhile to look into the causes behind this. Commonsense would say to anyone, including every Walmart board member, that this practice is wasteful. If it occurs to avoid import duties on sample garments, perhaps policy makers need to begin looking for better alternatives. Both H&M and Walmart released statements to say this would not occur again.

Scholars from the Parsons Pre-College Academy were enlisted to help with the repairs. During the three workshops the students experimented with a variety of embroidery and appliqué techniques to creatively patch the clothes. Each garment was attended to and repaired individually during these workshops. T-shirts with the Jonas Brothers, Dora the Explorer, Curious George and Disney Fairies all were given second lives. Cynthia Magnus has organized for the garments to be donated to the Family Justice Center in Brooklyn later this week. Our thanks to Cynthia for bringing attention to the issue, and to all the scholars who attended the repair workshops!