A new IPA survey has highlighted growth in the circular economy – and shown that an increase in the appetite to rent, repair and resell items has been spearheaded by Gen Z and Millennials and sped up by the cost of living crisis.
The survey, which was carried out by Opinium and gathered responses from 2,000 people aged over 18, found that 71% of people were considering giving away the same amount or more of their items to friends, family and charity this year. More women (21%) than men (16%) were considering increasing the amount of things they give away.
The next most popular activity in the circular economy was repairing items, with over half of respondents indicating that they plan to do this more or the same amount as last year. Men are keener than women to have their items professionally repaired (13% of men and 9% of women), whilst women were keener on repairing items themselves (18% of women and 16% of men).
But overall younger people were more eager to engage with the circular economy than older people – 11% of 18-34 year olds intended to rent items, compared to 5% of 35-54 year olds and just 1% of over 55s.
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The survey also showed that electronics were more popular to buy refurbished than cars and fashion items, 45% of people were keen on buying refurbished electronics, whilst just 29% of people said they would be willing to buy refurbished vehicles and only 28% of people were happy to buy repaired fashion items.
Fast fashion has grown since the development of technologies that allowed cotton to be spun more quickly and increased with outsourcing to low wage economies (a situation which culminated in the death of 1,134 people at the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh). The fast fashion industry doubled over the last twenty years and is responsible for as much as 10% of all global carbon emissions, according to a report from the Centre for Biological Diversity.
However, Oxfam shops and sites like Vinted and Depop saw a rise in users last year – with many people citing the cost of living and sustainability issues.
“With the continuing cost-of-living crisis, coupled with consumers’ increased awareness and anxiety around supply chain and sustainability issues, it is clear that the circular economy is becoming increasingly significant,” said IPA insight analyst Sophie Dimmond.
“It will be interesting to see how companies and brands can capitalise on this – from these results we are already seeing a considerable rise in popularity of resale sites such as Vinted and ebay,” she continued.
