If we changed the way the UK supplies, uses and disposes of clothing, we could reduce the carbon, water and waste footprints of clothing consumption by 10-20% each. This could cut around £3billion per year from the cost of the resources we use to make and clean clothes.
Around £140 million worth (350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year
More than 30% of our unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill
In the UK, we send 700,000 tonnes of clothing to be re-used or recycled each year – enough to fill 459 Olympic-size swimming pools
57% of people say they recycle their textiles
41% of people say they’re not aware of recycling facilities for textiles
More than 60% of householders in the UK say they have unwanted clothes and textiles stored in their homes
In 2010, we threw out an estimated £238m-worth of textiles for waste collection and sent to landfill – but all of this could have been re-used, recycled or sent for energy recovery
Around 370,000 tonnes of carpet is disposed of in landfill every year
We ‘consume’ 169,000 tonnes of mattresses a year but only 25,000 tonnes is recovered
In 2010 we could have recovered 84,500 tonnes of steel from discarded mattresses for recycling or energy recovery
