ASOS Has Pledged To Improve Their Sustainability Practices, Starting With Plastic Waste

With sustainable fashion on the rise, more and more people are thinking about where their clothes come from and where they end up. As a result, popular brands are being forced to take a good, hard look at their practices, and many are making changes for the better. A great example is ASOS taking steps to become more sustainable, as evidenced by the brand's signing of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. In signing, ASOS joins over 400 businesses and governments in working towards making sure wasteful plastic packaging becomes a thing of the past.

If you're as avid an online shopper as I am, you know you can rack up quite a bit of trash just by placing a handful of orders. Companies tend to send items with excessive amounts of plastic packaging, often for no real reason at all. To combat unnecessary wastefulness, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation created the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, and every brand that signs (ASOS included!) vows to be a key player in helping eliminate the issue. By signing, ASOS has committed to improving how the company uses plastic between now and 2025. Some of the specifics include eliminating problematic and/or unnecessary plastic packaging, implementing reuse models for all necessary plastics, and utilizing 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging, 30% of which will ideally be made of post-consumer waste sent back to them.

To be clear, it's not as easy as signing and becoming instantly sustainable. ASOS and the other brands that have pledged their commitment to reducing plastic waste will have to reevaluate entire facets of their packaging and shipping models. Still, they've already started making steps in the right direction. ASOS' own-brand packaging will be reduced by a whopping 50% come 2025. While the brand claims its packaging is already 100% recyclable in principle, it's working to ensure the same is true in practice, and that customers are doing their part, too. ASOS will even be asking customers to return packaging to the retailer to be reused, so if you plan on placing orders next year, keep in mind you can make its sustainability goals a little bit easier to achieve.

ASOS is the principal online retailer to have signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's pledge, so hopefully more big brands will follow its lead. One small step for ASOS, one giant leap for sustainable fashion!