Approximately 500,000 tonnes or 1 billion items of clothing are sent to landfill each year - that’s 114,000 per hour. Neither the planet’s landfill sites, nor its resources, are infinite and we know that placing unwanted clothing items into the bin (and therefore into landfill) when they could be recycled or re-used – is not sustainable.
M&S believes unwanted clothes should have a future: they should be put to good use, not just thrown out. It is therefore asking its customers to shwop – give an unwanted piece of clothing every time they buy a new one.
All M&S clothing stores will now accept unwanted clothing of any brand, all year round. It's a new, free service for customers aimed at creating a new ‘buy one, give one' culture on the UK high street.
Through Oxfam, the clothes will be resold, reused or recycled and the money raised will go to help people living in poverty. Not a single item will go to landfill and the ultimate aim for M&S is to recycle as many clothes as it sells – 350 million a year.
M&S has also launched a TV, print and online marketing campaign to support Shwopping. This includes a specially created facebook app – www.facebook.com/marksandspencer – which will allow customers to socialise shwopping. Shwoppers will be able to share experiences, see how many clothes are being shwopped at their local store and advise other shwoppers on which items in their wardrobes to shwop or not.
