One in five Brits bin clothing after one wear
Waste & recycling news – by GreenWise staff
18th June 2012
One in five Britons are throwing away a new item of clothing after wearing it just once, according to new research commissioned by Marks and Spencer (M&S).
The leading high street
clothing retailer said fast-fashion was mainly to blame with 44 per cent of items thrown away after one wear costing less than £20.
M&S said Britain’s throw away attitude to clothing meant £91 million of perfectly wearable items were ending up in
landfill every year after only being worn once.
The figures were revealed as M&S announced that half million of used and unwanted items had been
recycled through its new '
shwopping’ campaign. M&S, which launched the scheme through its Plan A sustainability programme, is donating every item of clothing to the charity Oxfam for re-sale, re-use or recycling.
'Buy one, give one' The campaign aims to put an end to people’s throw away attitude to clothing by adopting a 'buy one, give one’ mentality and helping to cut the one billion items currently ending up in landfill every year. The YouGov poll of 2,200 UK consumers revealed that 74 per cent of people have thrown unwanted clothes into the bin over the past 12 months and that one in three Britons has admitted to binning six or more items over the past year.
Actress and Plan A ambassador Joanna Lumley launched the shwopping campaign six weeks ago in a 'clothed street’ in East London in April. The half a million milestone means the equivalent of eight items a minute have been shwopped.
"I’m thrilled that UK shoppers have become UK shwoppers," she commented. "We set out to change the way people shop and put an end to clothes going into landfill – half a million items is a great start. We’re determined to give every item of clothing a future and help some of the world’s poorest people in the process."
This coming weekend, M&S is calling on customers to help it reach a million before the campaign hits its two-month mark. A special 'money off’ Shwopping event on June 21 to 24 will see customers who shwop receive a £5 money-off voucher when they spend £35 or more on fashion in-store.
Plan A
Earlier this month, M&S announced that it had met 138 out of 180 of its 'Plan A’ commitments since launching the programme in 2007 including becoming carbon neutral and sending zero waste to landfill.
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