New research released this week, undertaken by YouGov on behalf of FCC Environment, has found that the public’s appetite for reusing items, whether buying or selling, has increased over the last three years.
With consumers looking to adopt more sustainable shopping habits, reusing items has become increasingly popular. The poll, carried out on behalf of recycling and waste management company FCC Environment, which manages over a hundred household waste recycling centres across the UK, revealed that 84% of British shoppers buy second-hand items, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2023 but which has grown by around 10% since 2022.
This year’s survey explored the reasons why people buy second-hand items, with 70% doing so because it is more cost effective, 43% citing sustainability as the driving force behind their decision, and 42% doing so because they can find unique items.
In recent years the use of online platforms for people to buy and sell secondhand items, such as Facebook Marketplace, Vinted and Depop, has boomed with over a quarter of UK shoppers now using Facebook Marketplace. However, the FCC Environment poll 87% of people donate their unwanted items to charity shops, with 61% of people donating at least every six months, whereas 89% were donating their unwanted items to charity shops, with 60% of people donating at least every six months in 2023.
Commenting on the findings, Gemma Green, Reuse Development Manager at FCC Environment said: “Despite the boom in online marketplaces, the public still want to be able to donate and buy second-hand items in person, with almost nine in ten (87%) people donating their unwanted items to charity. Further to this, a whopping 83% of people agreed that all household waste recycling centres in the UK should have reuse shops onsite or nearby, with 85% saying so in 2023 and 79% in 2022.”
For those who have a local charity reuse shop, the most popular items among shoppers are books, household furniture and items for their gardens.
Gemma added: “Alongside the growth in people reusing items, we’re also seeing a growth in those looking to repair their broken items. Reuse and repair go hand in hand, and our poll found that the number of people who have visited a repair café has almost doubled (9% in 2024) since 2023 (5%), which is really encouraging to see. At FCC Environment we’re really proud of the work we do to reuse as many items as possible as we look to move away from our throwaway culture to a more circular economy.”
FCC Environment hosts 11 charity reuse shops at the Household Waste Recycling Centres it operates on behalf of local authority clients, and one high-street reuse shop, reusing over 21,000 tonnes of material and generating over £4million in revenue for its charity partners.