Gap's recycle your blues Oct 6-20

If you're in touch with the latest in things running around the internet, you probably heard about the Gap logo crisis. Basically, Gap changed their logo on their website, people hated it, Gap tried to spin it positive by encouraging submissions, and in the end they said, never mind we'll keep the old one and didn't quite admit to making a mistake.

However, as much as I myself really, really, really don't care about Gap's logo, and have never purchased anything from Gap (I do nearly all of my clothes shopping second-hand), I wish that this other action by Gap would get more press: Gap's donation program Another, more thorough description

Basically, if you bring old, worn-out denim (of any brand) to Gap, you'll get a 30% off on a pair of new jeans.  The donated jeans get turned into housing insulation through Bonded Logic and distributed to various housing projects.  The last time they did this promotion, some of the insulation went to Katrina rebuilding projects.

Now, obviously, a lot of perfectly good jeans will be going to the Gap instead of to a Salvation Army store, or Goodwill or other options that provide clothes for those with lower income.  However, I think that the idea of a store that addresses end-of-product-life issues WITH AN INCENTIVE is a wonderful idea.  RadioShack long ago had a battery recycling program for people who brought batteries in to be replaced.  This was great, but was never really well-known, and if a person was buying a new cordless phone instead of just a new battery, they would almost never recycle their battery from the former phone.  There was no reason to go to the trouble of hauling a dead battery with them that they were never going to use.

Anyway, I think that the only negative here is Gap's potentially less-than-great treatment of overseas labor.  Which, as far as Gap itself goes, I don't know too much about.