The environmental impact of retail, particularly the online sales of clothing, seems to be consistently underestimated. Between 22 to 44 percent of all returned clothing is never sold to a secondary consumer. These unused returned items have a big impact on the environment.
These data come from research conducted by the Ben-Gurion University. According to them, while most people are aware of the environmental impacts of fashion, there is still not a lot of research on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on returns.
Returns are a commonly known problem in ecommerce, for online retailers. Previous research already showed that sellers in the DACH region have to deal with high costs per returned order. To discourage returning items, many sellers have implemented return fees.
20 to 30% items are returned
However, many consumers still do not understand the negative repercussions of returns. Over-ordering (ordering one item in several colors or sizes) in fashion is common practice, normalized by programs such as Amazon’s ‘Try before you buy’. As a result, on average 20 to 30 percent of items that were ordered online are returned.
‘Few consumers know that returned items do not necessarily end up back on the shelves’
“While many consumers see the option to return as a key factor in their purchasing decisions, few seem to know that returned items do not necessarily end up back on the shelves”, say the researchers.
44% items are not resold
When items are returned, sellers need to complete a complex process of sorting, checking and often cleaning, repairing and repackaging the product. The costs of this process are often higher than the retail value. “Since many returns can only be sold at a discount, some items are thrown away or destroyed without ever being used.”
Up to 69,300 items of returned clothing in Europe ended up in landfills
Based on a data set of 630,000 returned clothing items in Europe, 44 percent never reach a second consumer. Half of them are recycled, a quarter end up in landfills and a seventh are incinerated. The rest end up lost somewhere along the way.
Emissions 16 times higher than managing returns
According to the research, these unused products that are discarded have a very big impact on the environment. The GHG emissions that are associated with the production and distribution of these items are 2 to 16 times higher than all post-return transport, packaging and processing emissions combined.
