As UK households discard around half a million tonnes of furniture a year, eBay is on a mission to tackle fast furniture and transform attitudes towards homewares.
Encouraging the nation to take a slower approach to homewares, eBay has launched the ‘Better Than New Homeware’ Hub – a curated destination designed to help shoppers consider pre-loved first when updating their interiors by choosing vintage, refurbished or repaired pieces that are better for both the planet and easier on wallets too.
This comes as new research from eBay UK reveals that the average person looks to refresh their home around three times a year. Although one in seven (14%) say they are buying more second-hand furniture now compared to two years ago, there’s still a way to go to tackle the vast amounts of fast-furniture that end up in landfill.
The new Hub aims to make it easier for people to get creative with their homes, whilst being kinder to the planet, with data from eBay showing that pre-loved Home & Garden purchases on eBay over the past year resulted in 6.5M kg of avoided waste – the equivalent of 520 double decker buses.
From olive-green velvet sofas to vintage gold frames that add character, there’s a breadth of one-off vintage pieces and refurbished furniture that can be mixed with existing pieces to refresh the home. One of eBay’s vintage sellers, Sooo Last Century, offers unique, rare and popular items from the 20th Century. Combining design, style and functionality of furniture to enhance any area of the home, shoppers can get their hands on a one-of-a-kind pre-loved vintage dragon side table, a 70s style storage footstool and so much more.
By opting for pre-loved, everyone can make savings on stylish pieces and take steps to reduce the impact of fast furniture, lessening the 22 million pieces of furniture ending up in landfill each year.
Rachel Miles, Head of Home & Garden at eBay UK said: “In a similar vein to the way we’ve celebrated pre-loved fashion through our partnership with Love Island, we’re now turning our attention to help ‘slow down’ fast furniture by demonstrating the style, value and environmental benefits of secondhand furniture and home accessories available on eBay.
“This new hub places a much needed spotlight on the impact fast-furniture is having on our planet and showing shoppers there’s a better way to refresh the home without creating more waste. Customers will be able to find a wonderful assortment of items from sofas to lighting with lots of character that support the fight against fast-furniture and correct existing perceptions around affordability.”
