Recycling and Reducing Waste

We’re committed to reducing fashion waste throughout all areas of our business. From the raw materials we source, to the cardboard boxes we transport our goods in and the unsold clothes in our stores, we’re stepping up and doing more to manage our waste and working to recycle as much as possible.

Minimizing packaging

As a global retailer with hundreds of stores throughout Europe and the United States, we’re working to reduce the environmental impact of our stores as much as possible. This ranges from making them more energy efficient to managing the amount of waste they produce or recycle. To keep costs down and reduce our environmental impact, we’ve come up with a new approach to getting products to stores. It’s designed to minimize packaging and waste at every stage of the process – from packing in factories to sales in-store. For example, we ask factories to use just one plastic bag for a whole set of T-shirts, instead of having every product individually wrapped.

We’re committed to increasing the levels of recycling in our stores, particularly for cardboards, plastics and hangers.

Our iconic brown paper bags have been spotted internationally since 2001, and are one of the best examples of reducing plastic use. Last Christmas we encouraged people reuse that bag for wrapping paper.

To reduce the number of trucks on the road and the amount of onsite waste collections at our stores, for many years we've used the same trucks that deliver our products to collect waste and take it back to our distribution centers.

As part of this process, we’ve established Resource Recovery Units in our UK and German depots. From here, the cardboard, plastic and hangers that are collected at our UK and Northern European stores are reprocessed and sent for onward recycling or energy recovery. This "backhauling" arrangement lets us be actively involved in the recycling process and has significantly reduced the volume of third-party waste collections from our stores.

In store, we’re seeking to reduce single use plastics. Clothes hangers are estimated to account for around two thirds of total single-use plastic at Primark. Our goal is to move to recycled materials for all hangers – helping reduce the carbon footprint of hangers by 40%. The durable new hanger design will be made of a minimum of 90% recycled polypropylene and can be used multiple times. Along with reusing hangers retained in stores, we will collect unusable hangers to be recycled and made into new ones.

As one of our main sources of non-clothing waste, product packaging is one of our priority focus areas. We have established a Packaging Center of Excellence to look closely at our packaging and explore ways to reduce it. Since 2019, we estimate we have removed and/or avoided over 1 billion units of single-use plastic components from our business.

The second largest use of plastic packaging is the film used to protect our garments in transit. We’ve developed a process to collect the waste film from UK distribution centers and send it to partners for separation and processing. The reprocessed material is transformed into Post Consumer Recycled (PCR certified) pellets, which are then used to manufacture new film. Where there is no alternative material plastic currently available, we’re increasing our use of recycled content in our plastic packaging, helping minimize our reliance on virgin materials.

There are some items that need packaging for protection or hygiene reasons; for example, women's briefs. This year, we’ve removed the SUP hook and replaced it with a cardboard alternative that’s color-coded to help customers find the right size. We’ve also reduced the thickness of the plastic bags from 65 microns to 60 microns. And while this may seem like a small difference, it's helped us reduce our plastic use by 2.7 tons. We’ve made similar changes in other collections, like replacing the plastic hook with cardboard one on a number of items in kidswear, socks, and tights. We’ve also trialed a new baby clothes collection designed with cardboard hangers.

WE CARE ABOUT CLOTHES WASTE

Reducing clothing waste

We’re committed to becoming a circular and more sustainable business by 2030. As part of our commitment to give clothes a longer life and to help protect life on the planet, we are working hard to reduce clothing waste.

Donating clothing and textiles in stores

Clothes should be worn again and again. However, if our customers want to give their pre-loved clothes a new life, we offer a Textile Takeback program in our stores. Established in conjunction with recycling specialist Yellow Octopus, our program lets customers donate any brand of pre-loved clothing, textiles, footwear and bags at collection boxes in any one of our stores throughout the UK, Ireland, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands.

Each donated item is sorted and graded by Yellow Octopus to be re-loved by someone else. If it can’t be given a second life, the clothing or fabric will be recycled into materials like mattress filler or insulation. In the UK, we’ve also partnered with Yellow Octopus to trial their Upcycle Labs technology, which uses textile waste to create new home products like soap dishes, vases, and candle holders.

The funds raised through our Takeback program will support UNICEF in providing better access to education, health, water, and hygiene, as well as life-saving aid to children in need.

We’re eager to extend our Textile Takeback program in other markets, but will only do that when we can be confident our program complies with local regulations and works for the infrastructure and customers in that country.

We also have our UK Take Back Textiles locations available in WRAP’s recycling locator tool. This makes it easier for our customers to donate in our stores.

We also encourage you to contact your local government to check what services they offer.

Ever wonder what happens to stock we don’t sell?

We have an efficient business model, so we try to minimize excess stock. When we do have leftover stock, we work with partners to make sure any unsold stock is donated, resold or recycled if it can no longer be worn.

In the USA, we partner with Delivering Good, a nonprofit organization that takes donations of new fashion, home and children’s products and redistributes them to support people affected by poverty and tragedy.

In UK and ROI, we partner with Newlife, which sells and recycles the clothes to raise funds to buy equipment and pay specially trained nurses to support disabled and terminally ill children and their families.

In Europe, our in-store recycling partner Yellow Octopus manages any unsold stock, sorting it and sending it for reuse or to be recycled. Items in good condition are resold through resale partners authorized by Yellow Octopus.