Coat hangers: First Mile confronts its latest waste villain

A First Mile van / Credit: First Mile

First Mile is launching a coat hanging recycling service aimed at the retail and fashion industries

Recycling innovator First Mile has honed in on a new target in its war against waste, as it seeks to recycle one of the most ubiquitous but challenging waste streams on the High Street: the humble clothes hanger.

The company announced yesterday it is launching a dedicated hanger recycling service aimed at tackling the millions of hangers that end up in UK landfill every year.

The initiative will provide fashion and retail businesses with an easy route for recycling their hangers. Clothing items are often imported with the hangers already inserted to allow retailers to quickly display their goods. But they are designed as a single-use item - and while plastic hangers with metal hooks may not seem like complicated products, they require specialist recycling to split and shred the materials, which is not a service typically offered by many waste service providers.

First Mile's new service will see recycling partner Endurmeta process the waste hangers, shredding and granulating them before sending them for repurposing within the manufacturing industry.

As many as 100 million coat hangers are thrown away each year, according to First Mile estimates, weighing more than 3,000 tonnes.

Each tonne of recycled plastic used in the manufacturing process saves 1.5 tonnes of CO2 compared with its virgin equivalent, according to estimates from the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling in Europe.

First Mile's founder and CEO, Bruce Bratley, said the new service could help support exopanding sustainability programmes from fashion retailers.

"The impact of fashion on the environment has been a hot topic in recent months, and we're committed to doing what we can to make it easier for businesses to be more sustainable," he said. "It's great that many retailers want to recycle coat hangers, with many also operating schemes where customers can bring them in to be recycled. By working with us, these companies can ensure that these hangers are recycled effectively."