Take-back Schemes: Are They Really Sustainable?

You may have spotted boxes distributed around high-street stores, persuading you to hand over your unwanted and previously purchased clothes. Most brands who use this service offer customers a gift card once clothes have been donated. A variety of stores also accept clothing from any brand, which they note will be resold, donated or reused for other uses such as mixed textile insulation.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THESE CLOTHES?

On the topics of where these clothes end up, there has been debate that they aren't actually ending at the stated environment. To start with, there is little or no factual evidence on how take-back schemes work and where these clothes actually end up. For consumers to trust this practice, brands need to be transparent on what happens to the clothes they donate. With the rise in talk on sustainability needed in the fashion industry, and the increase of greenwashing occurring throughout brand advertisement, are take-back schemes just a marketing strategy to convince customers they care about the environment?

As we've heard throughout news around sustainability in fashion, over-consumption is one of the biggest problems apparent in the industry. So, aren't brands offering gift cards to purchase more clothes after you donate your own to store contributing to this issue?

One issue with donating these clothes to be recycled is the current struggle in separating mixed fibres. With current recycling technologies, it is still difficult to recycle some fabrics as some fibre components cannot be separated. One factor to this issue is the "process of pulling fabric apart in order to reclaim constituent fibres reduces staple length and results in a heavier weighted yarn". Thus, some of these fabrics won't be ideal for the initial purpose they served.

There has been developments in other areas of textile recycling, such as the introduction of Eco Circle, who conduct polyester recycling practices without any reduction in quality and also use a closed-loop recycling system. More information on this practice can be read here.

BRAND WHO OFFER TAKE-BACK SCHEMES

Patagonia : Worn Wear Program

One of the most well-known sustainable fashion brands in the market, Patagonia, launched its Worn Wear program to encourage consumers to return their garments for free repair. An advertisement they created to represent this program was the "Don't buy this jacket" campaign, which they launched in the run up to Black Friday in 2011.

H&M : Garment Collecting Program

As one of the biggest fast fashion retailers, H&M introduced their Garment Collecting program in an attempt to get customers to donate their unwanted clothes by any brand. H&M first introduced this in 2013, which is a good development as a fast fashion brand. However, it has been rumoured that most of these clothes are sent to African countries, which doesn't help the local sellers of clothes in the area. They have also introduced a discount of 15% off your next purchase once you have donated clothes. Is this just a marketing technique to generate more profit?

On their website, H&M claim that all garments are distributed in one of three boxes: reuse, rewear and recycle. However, with an estimated 3 billion items of clothing being manufactured every year by H&M themselves, shouldn't they really be focusing on ways to produce longer-lasting clothing? An interesting article written about H&M's Garment Collecting Program can be read here.

M&S : Plan A Shwopping

M&S's take-back scheme claims that nothing goes to waste when you donate your unwanted clothes. As part of their Plan A program, they introduced Shwopping in partnership with Oxfam. They have stated that every donated garment is either resold, reused or recycled and note that nothing is wasted.

Their system has collected over 35 million items of clothing, which has helped contribute to £23 million in Oxfam's work across the globe.

In a perfect scenario, take-back schemes would be an effective system to avoid people throwing away their clothes. The question is, is this practice really reducing the chance of these clothes ending in landfill? Evidence from these brands on what really happens to these clothes is what we need to see. The ideal practice would be for these clothes to be cleaned, fixed, resold or reused for alternative areas of industry, and transparency needs to be more apparent.

Sabrina Cowper | Reform Your Fashion