Eliminating Non-Clothing Waste

Shrinking single-use plastic with smarter design

We're finding ways to trim plastic and other waste from our product packaging. We’re bringing in new hangers that are made from either recycled materials or cardboard. For items that need packaging for hygiene reasons (like underwear), we’ve removed the plastic hook and slimmed down the bag. Even small steps like these really make a difference to how much plastic gets used.

Clothes hangers make up almost 2/3 of the single-use plastic used by Primark. Durable new hangers, made from a minimum of 90% certified recycled polypropylene, are being brought into our main clothing collections with completion due in 2027. An increasing number of hangers in our baby collection have now been converted to certified recycled cardboard, and we're converting lingerie and swimwear hangers from plastic to cardboard. This project will be rolled out by the end of 2025.

Other packaging initiatives

• Plastic film used to protect garments in transit: Since September 2022, we’ve collected 2,178 tons so it can be recycled into new film.

• Bra accessories and headphones: We're transitioning to easier-to-recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a minimum of 30% recycled content.

• Baby bodysuits: We've reduced the packaging size by approximately 20%.

Measuring our progress

Since 2009, we’ve been swapping out unnecessary plastics throughout our operations. We recently established a baseline for all the packaging in our business so we can track our progress.

There continue to be challenges around the elimination of single-use plastic from our business. This is because of practical limitations, technical constraints, and the absence of suitable alternatives – for example, hygienic shrink wraps on some skincare and beauty products are currently required.

Recycling and managing our own waste

We diverted 95% of the waste we produce from our own operations from landfills over the past 12 months. We continue to educate team members, both in retail and our corporate offices, on how non-clothing and clothing waste can be reused or recycled, and we've put textile takeback boxes in our offices. We're working to standardize waste management across Primark stores, including a global rollout of waste bins to enable separation and recycling in every store, office and depot.

You can read more about our efforts to reduce textile waste here.