Clothing, fashion accessories and cosmetics are among the worst performing product categories when it comes to consumer perceptions about how effectively they are tackling the amount and recyclability of packaging used in the UK.
This is according to new research1 by Aquapak, which specialises in developing high performance, environmentally safe materials to reduce plastic pollution and improve recycling.
Food tops the bill as the best performer, according to British shoppers, some way ahead of household products in second place. Clothing ranks third, but only among 13% of those surveyed, with cosmetics and fashion accessories scoring very poorly for planet friendly packaging performance.
| Product category | % of consumers who think they are doing the most when it comes to the amount and recyclability of packaging used: |
| Food Household products Clothing Snacks Cosmetics Fashion Accessories | 54% 18% 13% 9% 3% 2% |
This is a perception that needs to be tackled by non-food retailers and brands as the research also reveals that over half (56%) of consumers said that they are more likely to purchase a clothing or accessory brand that uses 100% recyclable packaging. Of these, 21% said they are highly likely to choose an item in a fully recyclable package over one that isn’t, and 35% said they are quite likely to do so.
The right packaging material could reduce EPR cost burden for businesses.
Aquapak has been helping forward-thinking fashion and retail brands with its innovative dissolvable polymer Hydropol for a number of years now, with sustainable fashion brand Finisterre being one of first to switch their garment bags over to the new material.
Debbie Luffman, sustainability and circular economy expert and CEO of Think Circular, comments:
“Brands and retailers are facing a lot of challenges right now and having to manage competing priorities. When it comes to sustainable packaging, knowing there is a solution like Hydropol available to them, and one which support their business’s mission to eradicate single use plastic, it’s one less thing to worry about.”
Switching to dissolvable HydropolTM garment bags could help prevent millions of tonnes of hard to recycle flexible plastic entering the environment.
Garment bags made with Hydropol can be disposed of in existing domestic waste streams without contaminating other recyclable products or they can be dissolved immediately in hot water at home without producing dangerous micro-plastics. They also degrade harmlessly on land or in the ocean. They’re also fully transparent, lightweight, tear and puncture resistant so can be collected and reused many times by retailers.
N.Brown Group, one of the UK’s largest online fashion retailers are also moving to Hydropol garment bags this year. They estimate that they’ll be able to reduce their plastic use by around 44% once they roll-out the technology to all their own-brand products.
Mark Lapping, Chief Executive Officer of Aquapak, comments:
“Our research shows that certain product sectors are perceived to be doing better than others when it comes to tackling packaging waste. We recognise the businesses have a huge task on their hands when it comes to a range of sustainability issues, whether it is carbon, water or biodiversity, with plastic packaging just one small piece of the jigsaw.
“This focus is compounded by the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that will take effect for large and listed companies shortly and means that they must share information on how they monitor a wide range of ESG issues and their impact on the planet. The good news is that there is a commercially proven solution in the form of HydropolTM that will make their plastic packaging problems literally disappear.
“If all brands switched just garment bags to Hydropol it is estimated that around 25 million tonnes2 of conventional, hard-to-recycle packaging could be prevented from entering the environment each year.”
1Research conducted with 751 UK adults by Consumer Intelligence 1 February 2025
2Calculation based on data from McKinsey, Ellen MacArthur and Plastics Europe
