Destroying new property outright: that’s enough!

A regular store container diver sent me photos of her latest treasure hunts to denounce an immoral practice that should have been banned a long time ago: deliberately breaking brand new goods before throwing them away.

In the last few days, she found three pairs of women’s boots, sweaters, a small handbag and two jackets behind a Winners, including a Penguin brand that sold for $169. Original retail price of all this: about $600. Each item had been carefully cut before being put in the trash.

“There were some damn beautiful leather boots made in Italy. I would have worn them if they hadn’t been broken. They show no wear, no scratches,” laments the professional who mainly goes around the trash cans to give back to the most deprived.

Thanks to groups on social networks, she finds buyers for the goods and food she saves from a desolate end in the dump. Sometimes she manages to repair her findings with her sewing machine. By coming across blade strikes, we develop things. Since her office colleagues know nothing about her strange hobby, I agreed to keep quiet the identity of this woman I have known for years. Let’s call her Maude. It could have been green-hearted-Robin-Hoods.

Her recent finds at Winners are shocking, but what she discovered in early February was even more so.

Maude came across 2 large white bags containing more than 40 backpacks of various sizes, pencil cases and children’s lunch boxes. Everything had been cut, with some exceptions. The school effects displayed the Quebec brand Ketto, known for its pretty illustrations.

It wasn’t junk. Backpacks sold for over $40, lunch boxes around $35.

Who could have thrown all this away? This is THE big question.

The vast assortment was found behind a branch of Aubainerie. But verification done, the store chain has never sold this brand, its president and CEO Jean-Frédéric Pepin told me while insisting on the fact that “clothing waste practices have been completely prohibited for a long time. a long time” in his business. He took it seriously enough to call me on a Sunday and start an investigation right away.

Surprise, the store’s surveillance cameras made it possible to discover how the Ketto bags ended up in the container, in all likelihood. The videotapes show a man getting out of a car before checking to see if he was being observed. He then gets rid of two white bags. The images were captured in the evening, less than 48 hours before Maude passed.

Another interesting detail was that one of the bags contained a price tag that hangs on store shelves. Thanks to the font, the model number on the box and a visit to the store, the provenance was obvious. The label had belonged to Bureau en gros, which sells the Ketto brand and has a branch 1.1 kilometers from Aubainerie.

However, Bureau en gros is categorical. An inventory check shows that the products cannot come from its branch. “No internal directive ordering the disposal of the bags has been issued, these products are still available for sale. »

The mystery of the altered bags therefore remains unsolved. But it is no less offensive. Just like Maude’s list of finds over the past year: torn office chairs, hair accessories in perfect condition, cookie boxes with a crushed corner, oranges in phenomenal quantities.

To tell the truth, I no longer thought that retailers would have the nerve to throw away, in 2024, products that could make many people happy.

In the age of social networks, it doesn’t take much to arouse passions and damage the reputation of a company that does not act as a good citizen. We will also remember that the show Iat TVA, filmed in 2016 employees of the Garage/Dynamite group throwing away hundreds of new and torn clothes^⁠1. One year later, I had toured the containers, which allowed him to find clothes cut by Winners “at the request of the head office” and L’Équipeur.

Have these most harmful reports not served as a lesson for businesses?

This is without taking into account that urban gleaning (commonly called dumpster diving) is now a known activity. Dozens of reports have been published on the subject. All businesses should be aware that their bins are subject to legal inspection. And in the era of climate change, we expect that the environmental awareness of some traders will be more acute…

Winners didn’t tell me why their merchandise was cut, but that would go against their normal protocol. “Across our stores in Canada, we partner with Habitat for Humanity to donate undamaged and unsold products to people in need, and our stores have received instructions on how this process works. » Since the merchandise continually undergoes price reductions until it finds a buyer, “only a very small percentage of the merchandise” remains unsold, added the company spokesperson.

Some brands will never end up in the hands of those who rummage through containers, but not for the right reasons: they prefer fire^⁠2 with a sharp blade. The method was notably used by Burberry, which had already defended itself by asserting that the heat produced was recovered, which made the process ecological.^⁠3. You have to do it! The British brand then committed to no longer destroying its unsold items.

In short, it’s the same everywhere. So much so that we need to legislate. In France, the anti-waste law has prohibited manufacturers from destroying unsold goods since 2022. And in December, the European Union agreed to prohibit the destruction of new clothing^⁠4.

While we wait for similar laws here, we can only hope that the Maudes of this world will change business practices with their findings in the containers.

1. Read the TVA Nouvelles text

2. Read the BBC Earth text (in English)

3. Read the BBC text (in English)

4. Read the text of Release