Two moms in Southern California are on a mission to reduce textile waste and keep fashion circular, making shopping second-hand second nature.
Kimberly Lau and Linda Young are the founders of Project ReWear in Thousand Oaks. The idea came to Lau after she learned about fast fashion.
“We learned that over 80% of what gets donated to thrift stores ends up in landfills or sent overseas to be someone else's problem,” Lau told KNX News’ Margaret Carrero. “And it's not the thrift store's problem. It's due to overproduction and overconsumption.”
When Lou met Young at a local thrift store, the two women put their heads together and built Project ReWear.
Young said that while they’ve been in business for 15 months, they have saved almost 8,000 pounds of clothes from landfills.
“To put perspective on that, 8,000 pounds equates to about one garbage truck, and there's a garbage truck that goes to the landfill every second,” Young said.
They also weigh and track every donation and everything they sell.
Courtesy of Project ReWear
Courtesy of Project ReWear
“The goal of the outgoing, obviously, is to keep everything in a circular fashion,” Young said. “So what we hope and what we tell our customers is once you're done with your garments, donate them back, even if they're not completely wearable, because our goal is to upcycle or downcycle everything as much as we can.”
When it comes to donations, the women said they’re looking for clothes and shoes, jewelry, purses, accessories, knick-knacks - ideally, things that can be resold.
They also have a “community rack” for clothes.
“There's no monetary exchange,” Young explained. “We have a rack in our store where you can come in with something you're done with, you put it on our community rack, and you can take an item.”
The women also help clothe homeless people in L.A. through a partnership with the non-profit Bundles of Kindness.
In honor of Earth Day, they're offering 22% off everything in store and online through Thursday, April 23.
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