The research was published by Suez recycling and recovery UK and Keep Britain Tidy and aimed to understand the habits of customers using their reuse shops to buy second-hand items.
The second biggest motivator was saving money – with 20% giving a financial reason for shopping at a reuse store.
Customers also rated the experience of shopping in a reuse shop very highly, with 89% saying that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience of using their local reuse shop.
It was also noted that shopping for reuse can become a habit. Nine in 10 customers said that they have visited at least twice before.
Keep Britain Tidy conducted the research across Suez’s network of reuse shops, with face-to-face surveys taking place during May 2024 at 11 locations in Greater Manchester, Surrey, Devon, Halifax Calderdale and Aberdeen.
707 people took part in the research. 517 were current customers of the reuse shops and 190 had never used them.
What is a reuse shop?
Suez’s reuse shops were designed to refurbish and sell items that would otherwise end up in landfill.
The shops help fix, repair, upcycle, resell or redistribute pre-loved donated items to someone in the local community to be used again.
The waste management company operates 30 reuse shops on the behalf of local authorities in England and Scotland.
Furniture, electricals and children’s toys are amongst the most sold items at its shops.
It also operates a Renew Hub in Manchester which is a larger operation for refurbishing items for reuse.
Suez said that its reuse shops and Renew Hub have prevented 500,000 items from being disposed of in 2023.
Sarah Ottaway, sustainability and social values lead at Suez, said: “It’s promising to see that there is a strong appetite for purchasing pre-loved items through our network of re-use shops. Our findings show that even those who are not using them are already participating in other second-hand shopping behaviours, meaning that encouraging them to use their local HWRC re-use shop is simply adding to existing positive habits.
“What these findings show is that our retail offering is being well received by our customers, and that there is real potential to keep items in use for longer by expanding on this so it’s easy and convenient for people to access quality pre-owned goods at their local HWRCs. Our teams across Suez’ reuse network are already using the learning in their efforts to continually improve how we operate and develop our reuse services, and the findings are also useful for anyone currently operating or intending to open a reuse shop at a HWRC.”
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