If piles of old and unwanted clothes and beauty products are currently cluttering your house, you’re not alone. Which doesn’t mean you should do nothing about it. Just don’t feel too bad. In the UK alone, £140 million worth of perfectly wearable unwanted clothes end up in landfills.
Keeping old and unwanted clothes is something everyone is guilty of, to an extent. But not only are you cluttered, you’re also missing out on some serious cash and perks.
Recycling is not only good for the planet, it’s also good for your pocket. Win-win.
To start recycling, here are the high street brands that will take your old unwanted clothes and beauty products and recycle them for you.
M&S
In partnership with Oxfam, you can “shwop” your clothes at M&S. It’s a fantastic scheme, especially because the twist is brilliant.
You can bring all the clothing you want, from any brand to M&S. You won’t be rewarded beyond feeling good about yourself. And that should probably be enough.
If it isn’t, you can go to an Oxfam shop, and bring them at least one item of “M&S labelled clothing or M&S soft furnishings,” you’ll get a £5 voucher to be used back at M&S.
Find your nearest M&S store here
H&M Group
The H&M recycling scheme may be well-known, but & Other Stories, Weekday and Monki stores also take part.
The Group‘s garment collecting programme is one of the biggest in the world and was started back in 2013.
Take your unwanted clothing and textile to a shop and get a voucher for your effort plus Conscious Points on your membership card.
Find your nearest H&M store here
UNIQLO
Take your UNIQLO down garments back to the shop to be recycled into new products.
But that’s not all. They also accept all UNIQLO clothing as part of their RE.UNIQLO scheme.
You’ll need to get your clothes into the UNIQLO boxes and make sure they’re clean. These will go to people in need.
Find your nearest UNIQLO here
John Lewis
Bring five or more empty beauty products and get £5 off your next beauty shop. You’ll need a My John Lewis card.
John Lewis also has a clothes recycling scheme, but it’s currently unavailable.
Find your nearest John Lewis store here
schuh
Sell Your Soles is super easy and very satisfying. Bring one old pair of shoes, get £5 off a new pair of shoes to be redeemed instore or online, your choice.
You can get the £5 voucher for men’s, women’s and even kid’s footwear, and they don’t need to be from schuh.
Find your nearest schuh here
Monsoon
If you have old Monsoon clothes you don’t want anymore, take them back to the shop.
Part of the “Clothes for Life” scheme, any Monsoon clothes can be brought back to the store and simply handed over at the till.
And you’ll get £10 off your next shop of over £50 for the trouble.
Find your nearest Monsoon store here
Nike
Reuse-A-Shoe is Nike’s recycling scheme and while you don’t get paid for it, you will feel good about the recycling part, promise.
You need to be a Nike member to get a Reuse-A-Shoe bag. You can get order it online or grab one in store.
Once you have your bag, you can bring your old trainers to a shop or a DPD drop-off and they’ll be turned into Nike Grind, a material that’s used for playgrounds, running tracks and courts, and performance products.
Nike takes every brand of athletic shoes. They do say they can’t take sandals, boots, or things with spikes or studs though.
Find your nearest Nike store here
Lush
The Bring It Back scheme is very simple.
Return any Lush plastic packaging back to the shop and get 50p per item, to be used on the same day at the till. Recycling has never been so easy.
Find your nearest Lush store here
M.A.C
Bring back six primary packaging to a M.A.C store, and you’ll get a lipstick.
This is not a drill. Stop throwing away your old packaging and start recycling them. While this writer’s entire lipstick collection comes from old returned packaging, it’s worth noting not every lipstick is up for grabs.
If you have your eyes on a Viva Glam or Limited Edition lipstick, you’ll have to actually buy it.
Find your nearest M.A.C store here
BOOTS
Boots has a recycling scheme that lets you bring back hard-to-recycle beauty, health, wellness and dental items to 700 stores around the UK.
You’ll get 250 points on your Boots Advantage Card when spend £10 or more and recycle five empty products, which is a nice incentive. But don’t start putting aside every beauty product around the house to cash in.
The scheme is for hard to recycle items only. If you drop in anything you could have put in your normal recycling at home, it won’t be counted towards your five empty products.
Find your nearest BOOTS store here
Sarah Kante
