New Soft Furnishings Exchange follows success of the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange

Following the success of the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, the retail partners are extending the scheme to encourage people to recycle soft furnishings, such as cushions, curtains, throws and bed linen. The M&S and Oxfam Soft Furnishings Exchange is designed to raise money for Oxfam’s life-saving charity work and to reduce the one million tonnes* of textiles sent by the public to landfill each year.

From today, customers making a donation of M&S home textiles to one of Oxfam’s stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland, will receive an M&S voucher worth £5. Each voucher will be valid for one month, to use with their next purchase of £35 or more on homeware, clothing or beauty products at M&S.

The Soft Furnishings Exchange builds on the success of the Oxfam and M&S Clothes Exchange, which was launched in 2008 to encourage people to recycle their unwanted clothes. Since the launch, the Clothes Exchange has saved more than 3 million garments from going to landfill and raised an extra £2 million for Oxfam.

David McCullough, Director of Trading at Oxfam, said: “We’ve now given out over a million M&S vouchers to people who have brought us donations of clothing. Now that we can do the same for donations of everything from towels to bed linen, it’s even easier for people to help us make it curtains for poverty.”

Richard Gillies, M&S Plan A Director, said: “The Soft Furnishings Exchange lets people donate to charity in a way that saves them money too. We believe this also taps into a changing consumer mood which is shifting away from ‘throwaway style’.

“Our customers have already made a massive contribution towards a ‘greener’ future by saving over 3 million garments from going to landfill. Adding soft furnishings to the scheme will not only help Oxfam to further tackle poverty around the world, but encourage even more people to do the right thing and help reduce landfill waste.”

Marks & Spencer is supporting the Exchange as part of Plan A, its business-wide ‘eco-plan’ which aims to achieve 100 targets in five years, including sending no waste to landfill.

-Ends-

For further information, go to www.marksandspencer.com/plana or www.oxfam.org.uk

For images, please go to www.mandslibrary.co.uk

For further information for media, please call:

Marks & Spencer
Jo Keohane 0208 718 1618

Oxfam
Stuart Fowkes 01865 472254 / 07818 406038 / sfowkes@oxfam.org.uk

Notes to editors:

* Source: DEFRA 2006

M&S and Oxfam Clothes and Soft Furnishings Exchange

• The M&S and Oxfam Clothes and Soft Furnishings Exchange will raise more money for Oxfam to help people escape poverty around the world. This includes dealing with issues in more than 70 countries, ranging from campaigning against unfair trade rules that keep developing countries in poverty, to providing tools, seeds and skills to poor farmers. It also means helping vulnerable communities when disasters happen; supporting women’s rights in developing countries and working to tackle climate change and HIV and AIDS.

• The Soft Furnishings Exchange supports one of Marks & Spencer’s key Plan A environmental objectives - to encourage recycling services and reduce the one million tonnes of textiles sent to landfill in the UK each year.

• Vouchers not issued for M&S intimate apparel (such as underwear and swimwear), hosiery and socks that are donated to Oxfam.
  
• One voucher is given per visit and vouchers are valid for one month.
  
• In the Republic of Ireland, M&S vouchers will be for €7 off €50 on M&S general merchandise.
  
• One M&S voucher can be used for each transaction in M&S for general merchandise products - clothing, home or beauty (not food). 
  
•  In the first year of the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange half a million M&S customers saved a combined total of 2.5 million off their shopping bill and also raised an extra £2 million for Oxfam.

Oxfam and textiles

Oxfam is the only major charity to operate its own textile sorting facility, Wastesaver, which maximises revenue from textiles that cannot be re-sold in its shops and minimises the amount of textiles sent to landfill. The facility sorts textiles and resells them through a number of different routes, including:

• redistribution to Oxfam shops
• selling on the Oxfam online shop and at festivals
• to designers who restyle garments and reuse fabrics in their collections
• to textile wholesalers in the UK and overseas
• the low grade items are sold in bulk to recycling traders where it is used, for example, as mattress filler, carpet underlay, upholstery and car sound insulation
  

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