Goodwill Industries and Levi Strauss & Co. recently teamed up to begin the “A Care Tag for Our Planet” initiative this month.
For the first time ever, a clothes manufacturer will include a tag in its product prompting buyers to donate the item to Goodwill when they don’t want it anymore. The initiative will help decrease the more than 23 billion pounds of clothing in America’s landfills as well as increase clothing selections for Goodwill stores nationwide.
“We hope that it will remind people to donate their clothing to Goodwill, not just to prevent overflow in landfills but to help people in the community,” said Kirsten O’Donnell, director of public relations for Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida.
The clothing company already started producing the tags several weeks ago, said O’Donnell, and the program was first launched in some big cities. The stock is now available in Southwest Florida.
“If everyone donated their gently-used Levi’s to Goodwill, it would make a huge difference,” said Jennifer Swift, vice president of retail operations for Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida.
Jeans with the care tag are available for sale until March 31.
“It’s a neat promotion and to have a big significant company like Levi Strauss to partner with us, that is a obviously great,” said O’Donnell.
Levi Strauss is offering shoppers a 30 percent off coupon if they donate clothes to Goodwill during the week of Jan. 25. There are 24 Goodwill centers in Southwest Florida and 166 in North America.
“We’re excited to partner with Goodwill to let people know that they have a huge role in the climate change impact of their clothes,” said Robert Hanson, president of Levi Strauss Americas, in a statement to Goodwill. “Together we hope to inspire people to wash in cold water, line dry and donate unwanted clothing and other textiles to Goodwill.”
Hanson added that the best opportunities for reducing environmental impact happen after people take their jeans home and the company hopes the campaign will reduce waste.