Green Retail World rounds up the latest greener retailing news to kick off the week, featuring updates from AllSaints, B&Q, Ella’s Kitchen, Halfords and L’Occitane.
AllSaints leather repair
Fashion retailer AllSaints has launched a new circular initiative for its leather apparel pieces – dubbed ‘Repair and Rewear’.
The retailer’s in-house atelier team is now breathing new life into its customers’ AllSaints leathers, promising to fix rips and tears, replace lost buttons, fastenings, studs and zip pulls – and to re-stitch buckles and belt loops – at four stores in London.
AllSaints at Regent Street, Covent Garden, Jack’s Place, and Westfield White City are offering the repair service, but the company hopes to extend to additional locations in due course.
B&Q commits to selling peat-free plants
DIY and garden goods retailer B&Q has said it will only sell peat-free plants by 2026, in another example of greener retailing.
The retailer already offers only 100% peat-free bagged compost, but is extending its commitment for environmental reasons. Peat extraction contributes to greenhouse gas emissions because the carbon stored in peat releases into the atmosphere when it is harvested and dried.
B&Q’s head of sustainability, Sam Dyer, commented: “We know how vital peatlands are in protecting habitats and preventing climate change, and are committed to offering only peat-free plants by 2026, building on our move to 100% peat-free bagged composts last year and our work through our partnership with the Woodland Trust to regenerate peat habitats at Snaizeholme in North Yorkshire.”
Ella’s Kitchen impact director takes group role
Baby food manufacturer and brand Ella’s Kitchen’s impact director, Chris Jenkins, has been appointed as global head of impact for the business’s parent company The Hain Celestial Group.
For 13 years, Jenkins has spearheaded “the good stuff” at Ella’s Kitchen, including its climate action strategy, certifying as one of the UK’s first B Corps, and overseeing advocacy work.
In a LinkedIn statement, Ella’s Kitchen said: “We’re super lucky Chris will still be with us at the barns overseeing the Good Stuff We Do at Ella’s, as his new role involves supercharging social and environmental impact across Hain’s portfolio and better-for-you brands.”
Halfords launches inner tube recycling service
Halfords, in partnership with supplier Schwalbe Tyres, is offering inner tube recycling drop-off locations across its 351-strong store estate in England, Scotland, and Wales.
Consumers can drop off inner tubes from any manufacturer to Halfords’ bike repair section in stores, free of charge – and they will be consolidated, directed to Schwalbe’s manufacturing facility, and used as material in the production of new inner tubes.
Halfords’ sustainability manager, Dan Boyle, told Green Retail World: “As the market leader for inner tubes, this represents a positive step in managing the full life-cycle of the product and supporting a step towards material circularity.
“This is also a step towards Halfords’ ambition to increase the range of popular products we offer recycling solutions for.”
The service is not available in Halfords’ garage services, or in its Irish stores, yet.
L’Occitane packaging made from recycled PET
France-based Carbios, a biological technologies company aiming to reinvent the lifecycle of plastic and textiles, has teamed up with cosmetics brand L’Occitane to present a bottle in transparent PET made entirely from enzymatic recycling. The shower oil from the Amande range comes in 100% recycled PET bottle developed by the tech company’s “enzymatic depolymerisation” process.
Carbios said the bottle’s production began with the local supply of PET waste (already collected, sorted, and prepared) to its industrial demonstrator in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The waste consisted of coloured bottles, multilayer trays, and mechanical recycling residues.
The product comes to market in collaboration with packaging company Pinard Beauty Pack, and it is to be showcased this week at a trade show dedicated to sustainable premium packaging, held at the Carreau du Temple in Paris.
Read more about Carbios and its work supporting greener retailing here
[image credit: Green Retail World]
