The retailer explained that the scheme, developed in partnership with environmental charity Hubbub, involves 18 Dunelm stores in the North West. The stores will accept usable homeware items from any retailer including kitchenware and home décor items such clocks, vases, throws, curtains, cushions and small storage items, Dunelm said.
Following donation, items will be sorted and given to local charity partners, Dunelm noted. These include Depaul, Stepping Stones and The Wallich. If successful, the scheme is set to be rolled out nationwide across all 178 stores.
Reuse
Dunelm outlined that according to a study by Hammonds Furniture, an estimated 69.9 million homeware items are thrown away in the UK annually. Additionally, WRAP’s research on the role of reuse has found that reusing items that are currently discarded could save UK households between £2 and £8 billion per year.
The initiative aims to help reduce the amount of household waste that ends up in landfill or goes unused. It comes on the back of a survey recently carried out by Hubbub, which found that 85% of the respondents could be motivated to pass on no longer needed homeware and furniture.
Dunelm also noted that ‘Home to Home’ builds on the success of its Christmas campaign, over the course of which 60,000 Christmas gifts were donated to charities and regional organisations across the UK.
Other repurposing schemes launched by Dunelm include its instore Textile Takeback scheme. The retailer said that this has seen 405 tonnes of unwanted fabric donated since its launch last year, with approximately 65% of donated material reused, 20% repurposed and 15% recycled.
‘Product circularity’
Commenting on the initiative, Dunelm’s CEO, Nick Wilkinson, said: “Our ‘Home to Home’ trial offers customers in the North West a meaningful way of passing on unwanted household items. At Dunelm we believe in the joy of being at home and by building this into our commitment to product circularity, we hope to help create more homely environments for people that may be struggling to afford essential items, while also reducing unnecessary waste and landfill.”
Saskia Restorick, director of impact at Hubbub, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Dunelm in testing and rolling out ‘Home to Home’, which makes it easy for customers to pass on their pre-loved homeware to others in their community who can benefit, via the range of inspiring community partners. Home to Home is supporting people in the community, avoiding good things going to waste, and helping customers declutter. It just makes sense, and we’re excited to support Dunelm in scaling up even further.”
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