Fashion retailer River Island has expanded its Reskinned take-back scheme to all its UK stores and online.
To make use of the programme, consumers need a minimum of three items they no longer want to keep – they can return up to 10kg of clothing in one go. When they send them back, they will receive a £5 gift voucher to be redeemed off a minimum future £40 order at River Island.
Pre-loved items sent back through the Reskinned take-back scheme are either resold on Reskinned’s marketplace or recycled. Sometimes, the materials will be repurposed in the form of repairs or used for upcycling other garments.
The concept is in place as a channel to reduce the number of clothing items and other garments that find their way to landfill or incineration sites, and therefore avoid the negative environmental consequences of that outcome. It is supporting the growing market for second-hand clothing too.
Joules, Finisterre, and Seasalt are among the other retailers operating a Reskinned take-back scheme in the UK.
Jose Arguedas, head of corporate responsibility & sustainability at River Island, welcomed news of the expansion of the take-back programme, which was always planned by the retailer when it originally introduced the initiative in April 2022.
“We hope this will continue to provide an effective option to our customers for giving unwanted clothes a new home, rather than adding to the estimated 1.2 million tonnes of garments ending in landfills every year in the UK,” he announced on LinkedIn.
“At River Island we are deeply committed to eliminating as much waste as possible, re-using or recycling, to extend the life of our products.”
There are several organisations supporting UK retailers’ take-back programmes. Mamas & Papas works with Oxfam, for example, while Fat Face and French Connection are among Thrift+’s array of partners, and Cotton Traders works with Salvation Army Trading Company.
New Look has a partnership with Re-Fashion, and in January it introduced six in-store concessions selling second-hand clothing that had been collected via the Re-Fashion take-back scheme.
Read more about take-back schemes and recycling on Green Retail World
