Categories
Opinion

Gap Inc.’s Excessive Plastic Waste

Source: Brandfolder

We are in the midst of a climate crisis. Whether or not some refuse to believe it, or simply don’t want to pay attention, that is the truth. We are at a time where every citizen on Earth needs to do their part in order to save our planet, if they are not already. But not just the individuals that need to help; corporations need to do their part as well.

Gap Inc. is a company that, along with their Gap clothing brand, has multiple store branches, including Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta. On July 31, Carson Philbin and Jackson Dumas, two college students from Charlotte, North Carolina, decided to take on this company over their disposal of plastic hangers. 

In a Youtube video that went viral, the pair called out Old Navy for throwing away all of the plastic hangers used in store. These hangers carelessly disposed of in dumpsters have been and will continue to be taken to overflowing landfills that already have more than enough plastic. Dumas worked at his local Old Navy for 18 months, and when he was supposed to take bags of plastic hangers to the trash, he instead began taking them home. 

“During what was later described as a slow week for business, we collected over 5000…plastic hangers from my Old Navy. This amounted to 265 pounds of trash by Gap standards. And if all of the over 1000 Old Navy stores in America throw away hangers at the same rate, 5,000,000 or more hangers are being trashed each week,” Dumas said. 

Based on the teens’ calculations, over 14,000,000 pounds of Old Navy hangers are being put into landfills annually, the equivalent of 7,000 tons. 

Dumas also shared that the manufacturer of these plastic hangers provides an option to businesses for these hangers to be reused and recycled, “but Gap actively chooses not to use it.”

The goal of their movement, formally known as Hang it Up, is to “fight plastic pollution by going to the source,” said Dumas.

Their video was published July 31, 2019, and on August 23, the two led a protest outside Gap’s Embarcadero headquarters displaying signs labeled “Close the Gap” and “Hang it up Old Navy.” Theophile Larcher with the San Francisco Examiner reported that Dumas and Philbin were among around a dozen protestors, and amongst their chants, were denied their request to speak with Gap Inc’s CEO, Dan Peck.

Gap announced a plan to reduce this waste over the next 18 months, even before their video was made, but Dumas and Philbin argue that their deadline is not soon enough. This is true. As they pointed out, Old Navy stores nationwide have been doing this for years; even if they implemented their plan today, it wouldn’t be enough to reverse the effects of years of waste. Companies like Gap need to take responsibility for their actions, and impose as many plans as possible to reduce their waste. This involves plastic bags, plastic hangers, and other careless disposal that’s been taking place. 

People all over the world have been reducing their use of plastic straws and bags, but the plastic problem is still everywhere. When you buy something, it’s wrapped in plastic. You throw out your trash or even your recycling in a plastic bag. These common household habits make it difficult for most people to stop buying products that use or are made of plastic. Going zero-waste or even minimizing waste is difficult for most, especially if you lack incentive, time, or money. Sure, it would be great if everyone was able to buy from companies that used little plastic in their production and packaging, or if we all could support sustainable clothing brands. But those options are expensive, and few of us are willing to spend money in those ways or to do the research necessary to find environmentally friendly brands. 

As Dumas and Phlibin said, we need to go to the source in order to keep plastic from continuing to overflow our landfills. If the corporations that contribute so heavily to the earth’s waste and pollution changed their methods and realized the importance of their detrimental choices, we might actually have a chance at fighting against the approaching inevitable destruction of our planet.  

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *