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M&S will be trialling a new postal donation service in partnership with Oxfam, and will be accepting unwearable and wearable clothing donations.
The trial comes as UK homes reportedly contain an estimated 1.6 billion items of unworn clothing which have the potential to be used, reused or recycled.
According to new research by M&S, one third of the UK doesn’t know what to do with clothes that cannot be reworn – with three in 10 consumers admitting to disposing of unwearable clothes in their household waste bin.
From this week, M&S customers will be able to recycle their preloved clothing from the comfort of their own home by ordering a prepaid postal donation bag from the Oxfam website.
The bag, which is made from 100% recycled plastic, allows for preloved clothing to be separated into two groups – those that are good quality and wearable and those that are unwearable but equally too good to waste. They will then go directly to Oxfam to be resold, reused, or recycled.
The retailer’s research also found that one in five consumers admitted to being confused by what is meant by ‘wearable’ and ‘unwearable’ clothing.
WRAP, the climate action NGO, has defined wearable clothing as clean, dry, in good condition and ready to be worn by someone else, while unwearable clothing is damaged in some way – for instance torn, stained, faded, or stretched. Clothes which are soiled or contaminated are not recyclable and customers are asked not to include these items.
Katharine Beacham, head of materials, sustainability and packaging at M&S, said: “At M&S, we’re focused on making good quality, durable products which are made to last. In 2008, we launched Shwopping to support customers to give a second home to their preloved clothing, and we’re now expanding our partnership with Oxfam to trial a free postal service.”
Lorna Fallon, trading director at Oxfam, added: “We are so excited to be working with M&S as part of this brand-new trial. As well as continuing to encourage customers to donate their preloved, wearable clothing to Oxfam and help raise vital funds to tackle poverty around the world, this trial allows us to give unwearable clothes a second chance of life too.
“By recycling our clothes, buying, and wearing secondhand clothes, we can help to reduce the demand for new clothes, which could in turn help to reduce the damage to our planet. So, by learning more about the potential of all our clothes and textiles, we can help improve the lifecycle of all of our clothing for the better.”
