When wildfires hit Los Angeles in January, people did what they always do in a crisis: They stepped in to help.

And many of them donated clothes. Lots and lots of clothes. Volunteers were quickly overwhelmed as bags of clothes began piling up at relief centers.

“What happens is the help that's being offered actually clogs the ability for those cities and the community to help, because it's a mismatch of what the community and the city needs versus what's being offered,” says chief strategy officer Annie Gullingsrud at Trashie, an organization that worked to recirculate those donations and keep them from the landfill. “When these things happen, we just need to know that what we're offering is actual, informed help – not just perceived wishful thinking.”

How can we help each other out after disasters without contributing to this crisis? Listen to the episode below or subscribe to the Next City podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods. You can also read our Equitable Cities reporting fellow Maylin Tu's full article on textile waste recycling after the L.A. wildfires here.

This post was originally published on Next City.