High street store John Lewis have launched a new scheme where they buy back customers' unwanted clothes and accessories.
The new scheme, which they’re currently trialling with 100 people, aims to help reduce the 300,000 tonnes of clothing which ends up in the bin each year.
The service is being piloted in conjunction with social enterprise Stuffstr, where the app will link to a customer’s John Lewis account data on what they have bought in store or online over the past five years.
If the trial is a success, customers will be able to sell any unwanted clothing bought from the department store, with all payments made immediately, regardless of the item's condition.
Customers will be able to select the products they want to sell and will be told the amount they can get for each item.
To get an idea of how much money you could really make, examples show a pair of trainers bought in 2017 for £85 would get £31, while a bra bought for £42 in 2015 would be £5.
In order to be eligible, customers need to have a minimum of £50 worth of clothing to sell, and then a courier will be sent to collect the items within three hours.
To make things even easier, John Lewis will then email over an e-gift card for the value of the items you’ve sold.
Products bought back are then either resold, mended so they can be resold, or recycled into new items.
Martyn White, sustainability manager at John Lewis said: ‘We already take back used sofas, beds, and large electrical items such as washing machines and either donate them to charity, or reuse and recycle parts and want to offer a service for fashion products.
‘It’s estimated that the average UK household owns around £4,000 worth of clothes, but around 30% of that clothing has not been worn for at least a year, most commonly because it no longer fits.’
He added: ‘All customers need to do to earn money from their unwanted clothing is tap on the clothing they want to sell, hand it to a courier and it will be given to someone else to love or made into something new.’
Words by Kirsty McCormack.
