What motivates the team at Paperclip HQ to keep going?

In short, we're on a mission to challenge the way people think about the things they own and we believe that our trading community can make a difference. We understand the size of this challenge, but we also understand that we are a critical moment in terms of securing our future on this planet. There's never been a more urgent time for us rethink our shopping habits and reconsider how we buy, sell and swap.

Shocking Sustainability Statistics

Sibilance aside, we’re living in an era of mass overconsumption. We're already seeing the effects in our environment and these statistics really do paint a bleak picture of our collective consumption habits...

Fashion faux-pas

If you checked out our piece about fast fashion last year, you'll know that the fashion industry now manufacturing four times more items than it was back in 2001! Most of these new items are cheap, disposable items of clothing. These often end up in landfill, where it can take over two hundred years for them to decompose.

• Over two tonnes of clothing bought each minute in UK
• Amazingly, the average garment is worn just ten times before it's thrown out
• Less than 10% of all the clothes we throw out gets successful recycled
• Globally, the equivalent to a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites every second

Kitchen Nightmares

It's not just clothes that end up in landfill. Despite a sustained push to increase the rates of food recycling in the UK recent years, our environment is still struggling to digest our leftovers...

• Right now, the UK wastes around 9.5 million tonnes of food every single year
• Despite this, 7 million people in the country are struggling to afford to eat
• Globally, a whopping 33% of all the food we produce is thrown out
• It's not just` the food itself that we throw out, crockery and kitchen utensils often can't be recycled due to the materials used in the manufacturing process

E-waste embarrassment

The term 'e-waste' refers to electronic products that are unwanted, not working, and nearing or at the end of their 'useful life.' Computers, mobiles, televisions and even games consoles are increasingly seen as 'disposable tech' with repairs often costing almost as much as a new device.

The amount of e-waste has been rising for years, but only now are we beginning to understand the real cost of our addiction to electronics.

• Millions of tons of e-waste are generated globally every single month - the equivalent of throwing out 1000 laptops a second.
• E-waste contains extremely toxic chemicals, including: lead, arsenic and mercury. Exposure to these chemicals, directly or indirectly, can cause a myriad health problems.
• It's predicted that global e-waste levels will skyrocket to 74 metric tonnes by 2030 – almost double the figure recorded in 2014!
• Though recovery and recycling rates for e-waste across Europe in 2019 stood at 59%, the global average was just 17.4%.

Paperclip is on a mission to help reshape these habits by facilitating the sale of preloved items and championing the sharing economy. With over three quarters of all the items sold on Paperclip being second hand, you have a great chance of finding a new home for your old iPhone, or the unwanted gift sat in your wardrobe.

It's free to join and with no fees for adding items, why not list your stuff for sale on the Paperclip marketplace today?

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This article contains research and statistics from the following sources; Labfresh Waste Index, United Nations FAO, edie and The World Counts.