The social enterprise, Hubbub has partnered with the homewares specialist Dunelm to pilot a new ‘Home to Home’ scheme that tackles the plight of ‘fast homeware’ by re-distributing pre-loved homeware items.
The launch of the campaign follows insight released by the UK charity Barnardo’s that observed the relationship the UK has with its homewares. According to its survey, the UK spends almost £8bn a year in the market, but found that over a quarter of adults threw their unwanted, unbroken homeware items in the bin each year.
A follow-up report from the recycling charity, WRAP, found that reusing furniture and homeware could save households between £74 and £280 per year.
Now, in partnership with Hubbub, Dunelm is encouraging customers to bring good condition, pre-loved homewares into any of its 22 selected stores in the North West to be sorted and redistributed back to the community. The campaign will help to ease certain pressures being felt due to the cost-of-living crisis.
Dunelm will also pass on display items, samples, and specific products that community partners are in need of.
Campaign partners include Emmaus, which focuses on homelessness, The Bread and Butter Thing which focuses on surplus food and security, and Julian House in Exeter which supports people in temporary accommodation.
For Dunelm, this is the latest step in the retailer’s commitment to reducing the amount of household waste that ends up in landfill or being unused. Its Textile Takeback scheme has already seen 405 tonnes of unwanted fabric passed on by customers since it launched last year. Approximately 65% of that is reused, 20% repurposed, and 15% recycled.
Currently around three in four people are ‘open to buying pre-loved,’ citing cost-saving and landfill reduction as their reason for doing so. However, recent Hubbub pollings show that there is still some way to go to normalise buying pre-loved homeware and furniture.
“About half of people worry about the quality of pre-loved items, as well as logistics around collection or delivery,” read a statement from Hubbub. “We need to make it much easier for people to buy pre-loved, and to normalise not buying new.
“We also need to make it easier for people to pass on pre-loved items for free. 85% of people said they could be motivated to pass on homeware and furniture they no longer need, but as was the case with buying and selling pre-loved, they have concerns about quality and transportation that prevent them from doing so.”
Hubbub suggests this is where retailers can help, citing not only Dunelm’s campaign but IKEA’s Circular Hub and Curry’s campaign to repurpose white goods and electronic waste.
