{"id":35508,"date":"2021-12-03T16:56:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T16:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=35508"},"modified":"2021-12-03T16:56:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T16:56:41","slug":"pretty-little-thing-are-giving-away-clothes-for-free-what-does-this-mean-for-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/12\/03\/pretty-little-thing-are-giving-away-clothes-for-free-what-does-this-mean-for-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretty Little Thing are giving away clothes for free. What does this mean for the planet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the sale thousands of young girls stayed up all night for in the hope they could bag a free wardrobe of clothes, but is the latest marketing ploy by Pretty Little Thing really what powerful brands should be promoting when looking after our planet has never been more prevalent?<\/p>\n

In the build up to Black Friday, loyal followers of the high fashion brand were bombarded with emails and hit with too good to miss offers across Instagram and Twitter, leading their customers in anticipation.<\/p>\n

The brand, who is supported by influencer, Molly-Mae<\/a>, offered up to 100 per cent off in the ‘Pink Friday’ sale, encouraging customers to buy new clothes and stock up on the latest trends at little to no cost.<\/p>\n

But what are the environmental impacts of this sale?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pretty Little Thing is a company which encourages people to buy more than they need. With the help from social media influencers, they create and promote new trends to market to their customers at low prices, but what may be low cost for the consumer could be high cost to the planet.<\/p>\n

Overconsumption is one of the main contributors to climate change, as each item of clothing goes through a rigorous process before it arrives at our doorstep. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found the fashion industry as a whole makes up a whopping 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions each year.<\/p>\n

Laura Young, a 25-year-old environmental influencer with more than 40k on Instagram<\/a>, said: \u201cFirst of all it’s about the scale but also a lot of the clothes that we do buy is are predominately made of plastic which is a fossil fuel, plastic which has a lot of environment degradation through the manufacturing and production, but also at the end of its life, ending up in landfill, ending up as microplastics.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Laura also holds an MSc in Environmental Science. Image taken by Laura Young.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Pretty Little Thing limited customers to one free item per order. However, this didn’t stop eager customers from making multiple orders of free items to get past the restriction. This has contributed to more plastic waste, as more packaging was used.<\/p>\n

This video has been trending on TikTok, of a young girl whose room is showered in\u00a0 Pretty Little Thing parcels, so much so that you cannot see the floor:<\/p>\n

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@olivia.kingx<\/a> <\/p>\n

ready for all the shit i\u2019m gonna get #pltblackfriday<\/a> #plt<\/a> #fyp\u30b7<\/a> #Autumn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u266c original sound – officialsupremeaudioz<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n