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Marks & Spencer has joined forces with Joanna Lumley to launch shwopping – a new way to shop with M&S that will revolutionise clothes shopping and help us live more sustainable lives. Here at M&S, we believe clothes should have a future: they should be put to good use, not just thrown out. So, we’re asking you to shwop – which means giving an unwanted piece of clothing every time you buy a new one.
All M&S stores (except Simply Food) will now accept unwanted clothing of any brand, all year round. There’ll be over 1,200 Shwop Drops across the UK (at least two per store). Look out for them alongside till points.
Through Oxfam, the clothes will be resold, reused or recycled, and the money raised will go to help people living in poverty. Not a single item will go to landfill and the ultimate aim for M&S is to recycle as many clothes as it sells – that’s around 350 million a year.
We also today unveiled Joanna Lumley as the new worldwide ambassador of Plan A. Joanna Lumley joined M&S CEO Marc Bolland this morning at a street covered in unwanted clothes in East London, created to highlight the problem of clothes going to landfill. Almost 10,000 items of clothing (the number used to cover the street) go to landfill every five minutes.
See the pictures from the street covered in clothes
Joanna says: “We’re asking people to open their hearts, their minds and their wardrobes. Remember we used to just throw away plastic bottles. Now we recycle them without even thinking about it. We need to do the same with clothing. Bring in something old; buy something new. Swap and shop. It’s that simple.”
Find out how shwopping fits in with Plan A
Joanna explains more about the idea behind shwopping in the video below:
Visit our shwopping app on Facebook to join in with other customers and share your shwopping experiences. You’ll be able to see how many clothes are being shwopped at your local store and help other shwoppers decide which items to ’shwop or not’. Shwoppers will also be able to enter monthly prize draws when registering shwops via our Facebook app or by text. Just look out for the instructions at your store’s Shwop Drop.
Have you discovered our shwopping app on Facebook? What items are you thinking of shwopping? Let us know your thoughts on this new way to shop by leaving a comment below.
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Comments8
On: 11 March 2013 Permalink
I think that this is a wonderful idea – and like all ideas it has to start somewhere. You will always get detractors to any idea as seen in previous comments, but doing ‘something’ has to be better than doing nothing. And since this particular campaign has been set up by a brand that really has the public trust (no mean feat in today’s society!), does anyone really believe that M&S is simply doing this for the publicity? Come on – with Joanna Lumley at the helm, this is a genuine initiative – fun to be involved in, not compulsory in any shape or form i.e. you still have a choice where you wish to donate your old clothes, and the resultant money made will go to those much less fortunate than ourselves. For once folks, can we just be less cynical please?
On: 20 November 2012 Permalink
Some years ago you sold clothes in “odd” sizes. (Maybe for teenagers?) A return to this e.g. 11, 13, 15 etc would be most welcome as I for one am halfway between 10 and 12.
On: 17 June 2012 Permalink
A lot of people in u.k could use some of the clothes, but cant afford to pay for them.
On: 10 July 2012 Permalink
Hi Jo, thank you for your comment.
If you’d like to find out more about the work that Oxfam does on poverty in the UK, please visit: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/issues-we-work-on/poverty-in-the-uk
If you’d like further information we can put you in touch with the correct person at the charity.
Regards
The Stories Team
On: 27 April 2012 Permalink
I think we may well have been doing this for years by donating to charity shops….but I suppose this is good publicity for M and S and if it helps stop unwanted clothing going to landfill deserves our support…..
On: 1 May 2012 Permalink
Yeah right.
I can think off the top of my head 3 ways to make all this actually meaningful :
1 make it for all charities not just Oxfam. Not everybody has any interest in this particular charity. I won’t give to them enyway because their admins/overheads are not acceptable anyway.
2 Make it local – there are lots of local charities that need support.
3 Make it worthwhile for the customer – 20% off for 3 shirts etc – get the idea ?
4 Offer an alteration service, which you scrapped so that people can have their garments altered to their size (nobody is the right size).
5 Get real designers, perhaps students (?) to re-invent calthoes to make them more saleable and trendy = blimey a whole new line – recyled excellence !
You are of course welcome to pay me for these ideas to make your company more moral, more eco-friendly and more honest.
Peter
On: 13 July 2012 Permalink
I agree with the above comments these are very good ideas well worth acting on.
On: 16 October 2012 Permalink
I Gift Aid my unwanted clothes to the British Heart Foundation as I lost my dad to heart disease and my three brothers are sufferers. With Gift Aid the charities receive more for selling the clothes. The M & S Campaign is good publicity for them and why not?
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