U'sagain ripoff Minneapolis Minnesota

To Whom It May Concern:

Gary claims that he has been misled to believe that the clothes collected by U'SAgain are "distrubuted locally to help people in need and shipped to third world countries. When in fact it is being sold to the highest bidder."

Some of the clothing we collect is distributed locally to people in need. A small portion of the clothing we collect is given to shelters and similar organizations, on an as needed basis. Since our start in 1999, we have always given clothing when asked, but the fact is that we rarely get any requests. There is an enormous surplus of clothing in the U.S.

Most of the clothing is sold. About half the clothing is shipped to third world countries. On our drop-boxes we state clearly that we are a commercial company and not a non-profit organization and provide phone number and website for those with further questions.

Unfortunatly Gary doesn't say where he got his misconceptions from. We have nothing to hide, and welcome the oportunity to discuss clothes collection, donations, reuse and the economics of recycling, with anyone who is interested.

U'SAgain is a commercial recycling company, specialized in the collection of used clothes and shoes for reuse. Over the last 3 years we have built a network of 600 drop-boxes in Chicago, Seattle, St Louis and Minneapolis-St Paul. We collect approximately 3,000 tons of clothing per year.

The concept is simple. With focus on convenience and high service, USAgain provides a, by most people, welcomed recycling option, with well designed and eye-catching drop-boxes.

Reusable clothing, shoes and household textiles can be dropped off in any of the 600 drop boxes, at the convenience of recycling community members.

The collected clothing is resold by USAgain, for cents on the pound, to thrift stores as well as export customers in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The end user of the clothes, typically cannot afford new clothes, and appreciates the opportunity to purchase good, yet inexpensive clothes, and therefore the clothing is reused rather than being land-filled.

For every new drop-box that we place, more than 10,000 pieces of clothing can be collected and reused, every year. Each drop-box also has a positive environmental impact by conserving approximately 5 tons of textile fibers, and saving 20 cubic yards of land-fill space a year.

The EPA estimates that 86% of all clothing in the U.S. is thrown in the trash (latest figures available 2000). This is a waste and we are doing something about it.

Our website address is www.usagain.com and toll-free phone number is 800-604-9533 for those who want further information.