Retailer to trial 1st UK coat hanger amnesty in eleven stores
14 Sep '07
3 min read
Unwanted coat hangers are taken to a factory in Barnsley where they are hand sorted and then:
- All intact coat hangers are shipped back to M&S garment manufacturers in Europe to be reused - Damaged hangers are reground and turned back into coat hangers - Nothing is wasted – the metal hooks are melted down and reused - Even the cardboard boxes used to house the hangers are reused at least four times then recycled.
At every stage of the process the coat hangers are 'back freighted' – transported from stores and back to Barnsley and then into Europe in M&S containers that would have previously been travelling back to their destination empty. This means that the handling of unwanted coat hangers isn't using unnecessary fuel or resulting in additional carbon emissions.
The M&S coat hanger amnesty is the latest initiative to come out of M&S' Plan A 'eco-plan' that was launched in January 2007.
Guy Farrant adds: “Under Plan A we are looking at every single part of our UK operation over the next five years. By 2012 we aim to be carbon neutral, sending no waste to landfill and using sustainable raw materials where we can. As part of this we have pledged to develop simple solutions to help our customers make positive changes too. Recycling coat hangers instead of binning them is just one of the things we can all do to help reduce our environmental impact.”
marketing@alchempro.com
