Volunteers overwhelmed after natural disaster causes surge in donated clothing: 'I can safely say all of this would have gone to the landfill'

It's been nearly two years since devastating wildfires swept across the Hawaiian island of Maui, and one group of volunteers is still sorting through a massive backlog of clothing donated amid the disaster.

Circular Hawaii is an organization "committed to reducing landfill waste," advising individuals and businesses and educating school children about generally sustainable living.

Recently, Circular Hawaii volunteers gathered in Lāhainā, a town impacted severely by the climate change-driven fires, to deal with a shipping container's worth of what the retail sector calls "soft goods" — clothing, linens, and other fabrics.

Hawaiʻi Public Radio profiled the group's efforts, shedding light on the impact of clothing donations and their ultimate fate in the wake of a disaster.

Circular Hawaii volunteers sifted through "hundreds of pounds of clothing" on a hot spring day with one goal in mind — keeping all salvageable textiles out of landfills. Kiera Harder was one of several participants inspecting donations, and she spoke about how the group assessed them. 

"Is it usable? So is it in good condition? Does it have a stain? Does it have a rip? Would somebody wear it again?" Harder said of the tops, bottoms, and bedding donation piles.

Donated clothing in good condition is set aside for local aid groups, hospitals, and organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness. But even items that didn't meet that criteria weren't necessarily headed for the landfill.

"We take them to an industrial shredder, where we shred them up into little pieces, and then from there we can make them into new things, like pillows and dog beds," Harder explained.

In all, Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported that Circular Hawaii diverted 600 pounds of clothing that would have otherwise been discarded in a two-week span. 

A staggering volume of lingering donations is not uncommon in the aftermath of a disaster, and the practice came to issue following January's Pacific Palisades fires in Los Angeles. 

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At the time, The Guardian covered an "overwhelming influx of textiles donations" in the disaster's aftermath, highlighting its link to "everyday consumption and disposal habits" — particularly the outsized impact of fast fashion on the proliferation of clothing waste.

Nicole Huguenin is one of Circular Hawaii's founders, and she told Hawaiʻi Public Radio that the fast fashion and overconsumption cycle is harder to ignore when you live on an island. "We have to put some time into a sustainable, circular solution. And we have even more now because of the fire," Huguenin observed.

She added: "I can safely say all of this would have gone to the landfill."

One of the group's volunteers, Rona Martin, pointed to tradition when discussing Circular Hawaii's mission. Martin said learning to "reuse everything" was a big part of her youth. "We would repurpose everything, like Grandpa would make goggles out of wood, and it was just pretty amazing. My great grandma made her own underwear out of rice bags," she explained.

Another volunteer, Gretchen Losano, surveyed the "amazing" volume of fabric kept out of landfills that day, calling it a "huge win for Maui."

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