fashion

It’s in the (more sustainable) bag

It’s time to get acquainted with your RI carrier bag. This bag is rubbish… no, really: it’s made from 100% recycled waste from the UK. Plus, we’ve refreshed our carrier bags in style and substance so that it’s even better (and, dare we say, sleek) than before.

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What’s so great about a plastic bag?

Aside from the slick new design and colourways? We’ve been making our carrier bags with recycled plastic for years. Now, we’ve moved manufacturing closer to home, from Malaysia to the UK, so our bag’s carbon footprint is significantly reduced. So far, we’ve saved a massive 61,168kg of CO2. That’s the equivalent of removing approximately 36 cars from the road for one year.

Where does the waste come from?

Our carrier bags are made with repurposed plastic waste, which we collect from across all our operating sites (that’s stores, HQ and our warehouse), as well as from other UK plastic waste. Previously we were able to recycle around 80% of our plastic waste, and now that has increased to over 90%, so we’re recycling more than ever before

Why do we still use plastic?

Plastic has been given a bad name over recent years, but if you make it from recycled plastic and repurpose it when finished, it’s a good material to use. Not only is it much more hardwearing than paper, but it also takes comparatively less plastic than paper to make a bag. By repurposing all our plastic into our carrier bags we are giving waste a new life.

Bags that do good.

When you buy our plastic carrier bags, we donate the UK’s 10p plastic bag levy directly to Newlife, the charity for disabled and terminally ill children. So far, this has raised over £3m.

Newlife changes the lives of disabled or terminally ill children and their families, providing specialist equipment to families in need, supporting families through a dedicated Nurse service. Newlife also campaigns to give disabled children and their families a voice, and helps fund pioneering medical research.