More than one in five people buy clothes from charity shops
More than one in five of us buy lots of clothes at a charity shop, vintage store, or flea market, with younger people more likely to be on the lookout for second-hand purchases.The Central Statistics Office has said that 22% of us bought between 11 and 50 pieces of second-hand clothing from a second-hand shop last year, with this figure rising to 30% for 17 to 34-year-olds.The statistics form part of a new series from the CSO on the waste and recycling behaviours of Irish households.Statistician Tadhg O’Shaughnessy said: “Our aim for this release was to get a better understanding of how households dispose of their waste, to identify sources of irritating noise pollution, examine household radon testing, and to understand if households purchased second-hand items across 2024.” The survey found that four in five households disposed of non-recyclable waste using a wheelie bin collection service last year. The data showed that only 1% of households didn’t recycle any of their recyclable waste.
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Food waste Food waste was disposed of in a variety of ways, with 52% of households using the organic/brown bin, 22% putting it the general waste bin, 13% composting it at home, and 9% using it as feed for animals.Almost half of apartment dwellers said they put their food waste in the general waste bin compared to just 16% of those in semi-detached houses.Mr O’Shaughnessy said: “Looking at noise pollution, 62% of households did not report any irritating noise pollution, however, for households who did experience irritation, the main source of noise pollution was from road traffic.“Noise pollution from road traffic accounted for 18% of households, 14% from the noise pollution of dogs, and 10% from neighbouring houses.” He also said that renters were more likely to have problems with noise pollution than homeowners.
Alongside clothes, the survey also asked participants if they bought second-hand furniture and electronics, with the vast majority saying they hadn’t.However, 18% of people said they had bought at least one item of furniture second hand in the last year, with renters and younger people more likely to have done so.It was a similar situation for electronics, with 16% having bought at least one item in the last year.
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