Clothing placed in those red bins scattered around town by U’SAgain aren’t going to a nonprofit agency, although the company says it donates to charities some of the money gained from selling recycled clothes.
U’SAgain — pronounced Used Again — is a for-profit company that resells clothes, mostly to brokers in Third World counties — such as in Africa, South America, and Asia, with some going to domestic thrift shops.
That both prevents clothing from ending up in landfills and provides cheap clothes to those who are in need at affordable prices, said Eric Shannin, division manager at the Seattle branch of the office.
“We are a commercial company who is just trying to do good things,” Shannin said.
The bins have shown up all over Western Washington, KIRO-TV said, and some people who have donated thought they were giving clothes to a charity.
Thought to be nonprofit
Asit Patel, who owns the Rhino Food Mart at the gas station at First and Liberty streets in Port Angeles, said that when U’SAgain representatives spoke to him about eight or nine months ago, he believed they were with a charitable organization.
“That is what they said,” he said.
“The paperwork looked like that to me. But they did say if I wanted them to take it away, I could just call them, but I can’t find the paperwork or the number.”
On its Web site www.usagain2.com, the company says it has donated more than $900,000 to community groups and charities as of the third quarter of 2009.
“That’s a major contribution from a small business like us, and we are proud of this accomplishment,” the Web site says. “We believe that you don’t have to be a nonprofit to do good.”
“You don’t have to be a ‘charity’ to serve the community.”
Shannin said that the for-profit company offers business owners the option of diverting some of the used clothing in the boxes to charities or to organizations such as schools or churches.
No intent to confuse
He said the company doesn’t intend to confuse people or to imply that it is a nonprofit organization that will give the clothes away.
“I think that, because we work closely with charitable organizations, people sometimes make that assumption,” Shannin said.
“But my folks and I am very, very careful to not say that we are a nonprofit.”
He said that company representatives perhaps should make the concept clearer to business owners who allow the bins on their proprieties.
“It is possible that this is something we could work on,” he said. “But we are not trying to trick anyone.”
Rafael Guitron, manager of El Puerto de Angeles, a Mexican food restaurant at 940 E. First St., said that, although he didn’t know who had approved the bin, it had been there for several years.
The owner or manager of the Food Mart at the Chevron station at First and Albert streets, which also has a bin, could not be reached for comment.
On the U’SAgain Web site, the company says that, not only does it keep clothes out of landfills, it also provides jobs, pays taxes, and makes clothing available at reasonable prices to people with little money.
It says it is not trying to compete with other organizations that have clothing banks.
“There is no need for each to see the other as a competitor,” the Web site said.
“Instead, we are colleagues — colleagues in friendly competition doing the only thing that makes sense with used clothing: collecting it so it can be used again, as it is when brought to the right market, or put into a recycled-material product.”
Emphasis on recycling
The company site says that 15 percent of clothing is currently diverted to reuse, while the rest ends up in a landfill. It is hoping to help bring the amount of recycled clothing up to 50 percent.
“We are primarily interested in these environmental issues,” Shannin said.
“We want to find a way to intersect this clothing that is going to landfills, find a way to recycle it for other people to use, and put the money from that in the hands of those who really need it.
“Even if that was the only thing we did — I think that is pretty good — it is much better than some other business models.
The company is run by Chicagoan Mattias Wallander.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
