Primark launched their Textile Takeback Scheme in July 2020 encouraging customers to bring in their unwanted clothing, textiles, footwear and bags to be reused or recycled into any UK Primark store.

48 million tones of clothing are disposed worldwide every year. 73% are incinerated, 12% is reused, 12% is downcycled, and only less then 1% is turned into new clothes.

Primark recycling and donation programme is designed to prolong the use of clothing and other textiles to address clothing waste. The scheme introduced takeback bins in 190 stores across the UK, and was designed to help reduce textile waste, a big part of Primark’s sustainability ambitions. Key principles of the scheme are that it accepts items from any other brand and also ensures that nothing goes to landfill. The retailer has partnered with recycling specialist Yellow Octopus to operate the scheme. Yellow Octopus has a ‘no landfill’ policy across the 21 countries it operates in, which was a key consideration for Primark. Through their work, they divert around one million garments from landfill every month.

Once shoppers have donated their unwanted items through Primark’s blue donation boxes in-store, they will be taken to one of the regional distribution centres. They use the same trucks that deliver products to store, saving resources and reducing emissions by having less trucks on the road. Donations are assessed for reuse and distributed by recycling partner Yellow Octopus. Yellow Octopus then aims to reuse as much as possible so clothes, shoes and bags can be re-worn by others. Where this isn’t possible, they will repurpose donations by reprocessing the raw materials into new products. This means the materials from donations may be used as stuffing for a new toy, mattress filling, insulation, or grind for playgrounds. 

It was a true collaboration inside Primark, bringing together colleagues from across their Environmental Health & Safety, Environmental Sustainability, Ethical Trade, Store Experience, Procurement, Logistics, and Retail staff to develop scheme. Any profits from the scheme, a result of the clothing sold on by Yellow Octopus, go to UNICEF, Primark’s global charity partner, in support of its education programmes for vulnerable children around the world.

Photo taken by Andy Brown.