eBay has unveiled a new Circular Change Council with other major retailers that aims to combat furniture waste and encourage circularity, Retail Week reports.
Working alongside the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) the ecommerce giant’s council aims to tackle the 22m furniture items chucked away per year in the UK.
Retailers including Ikea, Sainsbury’s and Dunelm, as well as the BRC and British Heart Foundation will work on the initiative.
eBay said a fully circular industry would mean “significant reductions to current return models” for retailers, that set the sector back £60bn per year.
The body aims to tackle issues in the furniture industry, such as creating easier consumer access to second hand furniture from reliable sources, combatting complicated recycling regulations and returns costs.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
The business’s UK general manager of home, refurbished and electronics Kumaran Adithyan said: “There is a huge opportunity for the furniture industry to take on some of the challenges to help take steps towards a fully circular future.
“We are excited to partner with WRAP to bring together like-minded and forward-thinking brands from across the industry to form a collective that can drive and incentivise behaviour change at scale”.
The news comes after eBay’s pre-loved fashion sponsorship of Love Island saw UK searches for “pre-loved clothes” soar by 1400% in 2023.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
