John Lewis takes aim at ‘throwaway’ culture in retail sector

John Lewis has promised £1m to tackle the retail industry’s “throwaway” lifestyle. 

The worker-owned agency is calling on teachers, charities and smaller firms to pitch suggestions to help slash squander and air pollution throughout food stuff, textiles and home merchandise. 

It will offer grants involving £150,000 and £300,000 to the most impressive suggestions to problem the industry’s “outdated make/use/throw away” product. John Lewis elevated the fund from profits of 10p plastic baggage around a two-year interval.

Marija Rompani of John Lewis said: “We are living in a earth of finite materials and we have to have to start off shielding them before it is way too late.

“This is why we’re particularly looking for jobs that are regenerative and can do away with squander or air pollution from the layout stage and ultimately protect mother nature.”

John Lewis is functioning with Hubbub, a charity and social organization that focuses on sustainability.

The retailer said the full elimination of one use provider baggage would perhaps reduce the availability of revenues for identical cash in the long term, “but we will usually be looking for approaches to assistance innovation”.

In May, John Lewis retailers in Cheltenham, Kingston and Leeds began trialling the elimination of one use plastic provider baggage.

In 2019 it introduced a identical £1m fund to reduce plastic squander and it picked 5 winners from all over a hundred and fifty apps.

They integrated a challenge that employed mussels to help stem the movement of microplastics from polluted estuaries and coastal water.

 Any results from John Lewis’ “Circular Future Fund” will be shared with the market.