[This episode originally aired April 2,2025] The secondhand clothing market isn't equipped for textile recycling. So when your donated clothes don't sell, where do they end up?

With the rise of overconsumption and fast fashion, clothes have piled up in thrift stores, landfills, and incinerators around the world. Countries like Ghana and Chile are dealing with fashion waste from countries like the U.S., UK, and China, and the impacts are vast.

Mountains of clothes lead to fires, polluted waterways, dying ocean life, and lost livelihoods. So how do we stop the cycle? How can we donate with purpose and dignity, and get fashion brands to actually take accountability for the full lifecycle of their clothes?

Listen to hear what our community does with their used clothes, how a new law could force companies to clean up their act, and how Los Angeles's Suay Sew Shop is dealing with the untenable amount of clothing donations from wildfire relief.

➡️ If you want to support Suay Sew Shop, you can browse their site here and contribute to their Textiles Aren't Trash fire relief campaign. By the way, you can earn rewards for Suay purchases and donations in the Commons app!

🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Holly Kane, Maya Roman, Nate Rauh-Bieri, Nick
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (02:45) - Mirrored catastrophes in Ghana and California amplify the clothing crisis
• (06:43) - Community voices: What do you do with clothes you don't want anymore?
• (12:00) - n interview with Sumaq Alvarado del Aguila, one of the leaders at SUAY Sew Shop — an LA-based vertical sewing and production shop that's recycling millions of pieces of clothing
• (30:17) - Sanchali shares progress for clothing company regulation and responsibility
• (35:12) - Last looks and points to remember

From the halls of government to the depths of the ocean, how deep does the plastic crisis go and can we recycle our way out of this mess?

Plastic has completely permeated our existence, and and its effects are far-reaching, from soil to glaciers. Recycling was supposed to take care of this mess — or was it?

In this episode, we’ll figure ou how the plastic industry is behind one of th biggest greenwashing schemes of all time, the current state of recycling, and why Big Oil is banning big on plastic. We’ll also hear from our plastic-perplexed-but-optimistic community and our expert, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup, Laurent Lebreton.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Anna, Mac Hansen, Sawyer, Sobia Zaidi, Tiffany, Valli Divya, Rachel Radvany
• Episode expert: Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:17) - Intro
• (08:12) - How does our community handle plastic recycling?
• (12:31) - Interview with Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• (32:22) - How Big Oil is banking on plastic.
• (39:54) - Outro

We see greenwashing everywhere — from product labels to fossil fuel ads. But it goes even deeper than that. Greenwashing gets in the way of climate policy changes too!

On this episode of Second Nature, we’re hearing how our community dodges greenwashing, talking through 4 questions to ask yourself to see if a brand is greenwashing, and we’re talking to Dr. Mara Einstein about how greenwashing has evolved with the rise of social media.

📱 To join the Commons community and see our expert brand ratings, download the app.
🚫 Check out the Dirty Money list.
📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

🌎 Find further reading and citations in the full show notes.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Obehi Ehimen, Louka, Leïla Six, Nicole Collins, Verity, Danielle Bird [s2], Bo Meisl, Kenzie Rattray, Grace Hebert
• Episode expert: Dr. Mara Einstein
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Companies have gotten really good at greenwashing
• (02:43) - How to know if a company is greenwashing
• (07:54) - How our community finds and avoids greenwashing
• (11:57) - Interview with Dr. Mara Einstein about the background go greenwashing and how social media has perpetuated it.
• (36:00) - Taking collective action against greenwashing