{"id":161358,"date":"2019-04-25T15:04:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T15:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/recycling-how-fashion-is-tackling-waste-by-encouraging-customers-to-return-old-clothes\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T13:56:09","slug":"recycling-how-fashion-is-tackling-waste-by-encouraging-customers-to-return-old-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/recycling-how-fashion-is-tackling-waste-by-encouraging-customers-to-return-old-clothes\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycling: how fashion is tackling waste by encouraging customers to return old clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"
During the past decade, the scramble for cheaper manufacturing and fast-changing trends has taken over the fashion industry resulting in a worldwide waste crisis.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Copenhagen Fashion Summit reported that fashion is responsible for 92m tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year<\/strong>, while a recent study by the Ellen McArthur Foundation found that one garbage truck of textiles is wasted every second.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Further to this, in 2018 the UN reported how the fashion industry is also the second-biggest consumer of water<\/strong>, producing 20% of wastewater and generating more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n However fashion brands and designers from all walks of the market have started to not only improve their sustainability policies, but to also recycle an array of waste materials and use them in different ways<\/strong> to give them a second life. In 2016, for example, actresses Lupita Nyong'o, Emma Watson and Margot Robbie walked the Met Gala red carpet wearing gowns by Calvin Klein made entirely from recycled plastic bottles.<\/span><\/p>\n With the rise of resale websites such as Vestiaire Collective, recycling, hiring and buying vintage has become more and more important \u2013 especially amongst millennials \u2013 and the number of brands testing different recycling schemes has increased.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n According to our exclusive study How Britain will Shop for Fashion in 2019 and Beyond<\/em> (to be serialised on TheIndustry.fashion in the coming months), British consumers of all ages are very open to the idea of recycling their old clothes, much in the same way they have become used to recycling packaging and bottles.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Some 43% of the 1,000 consumers who responded to the study<\/strong> said they would recycle more clothing if there were more recycling points in store and the same number also agreed they would recycle more if incentivised to do by brands and retailers (typically though a discount on new items).<\/p>\n Young consumers are more excited by the idea of an incentive scheme to recycle<\/strong>. More than half (52%) of 16-24 year olds like the idea of an incentive with the figure remaining high (at 49%) for 25-34 year olds. However right through the age groups the idea remains a strong draw.<\/p>\n Merely proving more in-store recycling points would be effective, but far less so (unsurprisingly) than offering an incentive.<\/p>\n What is striking though is that while consumers feel only a mild responsibility themselves to recycle more (or perhaps they feel they do enough already) they felt much strongly that brands should do more.<\/p>\n When asked how strongly they agreed with the following statement \u2013 \u00a0\"I have too many clothes and I need to think more carefully about how I dispose of them\" \u2013 only 5% strongly agreed, with 7% agreeing and 19% somewhat agreeing.<\/strong> The rest were either neutral on the subject or disagreed<\/p>\n However when asked how strongly they agreed with this statement \u2013 \"Brands and retailers need to do more to help consumers dispose of old clothing\" \u2013 10% strongly agreed, 20% agreed and a further 29% somewhat agreed.<\/strong><\/p>\n With this in mind, we take a look at some of the very recent initiatives brands and retailers have announced.<\/p>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Primark<\/strong><\/h2>\n