Asos to cut plastic waste

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 12, 2018

Asos is looking at introducing ‘bags for life’ in a bid to reduce plastic waste as sales continue to accelerate worldwide.

The fashion platform aimed at 20-somethings shipped over 50 million orders last year, most of which were sent in plastic carrier bags, it revealed in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning.

The British company made £1.15 billion in revenue in the six months to 28 of February, up 27% compared with the previous year. Sales have increased steadily both in the UK (up 22%) and abroad (up 31%), fuelled by the brand’s continued launch of new products like own brand sportswear.

The increase in sales has also meant the company has upped its consumption of single-use plastic packaging, with CEO Nick Beighton, chief executive of Asos saying it has become “too much”. He told journalists that the potential introduction of reusable bags could help the business curb excessive plastic use.

“You send it back to us and we send stuff back in the same bag,” he said. “I've got no specific targets that I want to share but what I can say to you is: this is something deeply personal to me and it’s shared by the Asos business, and it will be shared increasingly by our customers.”

The e-commerce platform launches around 4,000 new styles each week and features around 85,000 product lines in total. It hopes to become the world’s number-one online shopping destination for fashion-loving 20-somethings with an extensive offering that caters to different price points, lifestyles and sizes.