‘Feeding a Beast That Never Gets Full’

: Charity Retail Fundraising and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Charity shops have long functioned as sites of waste prevention in the UK, setting household discards on local and global journeys for further cycles of use and recycling. In recent years, amid growing sustainability-focused public discourse, charity retailers have increasingly been interpreted and positioned as agents of the circular economy. Charity shop practices resonate with efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of contemporary production and consumption, for example, by curbing resource use and slowing the accumulation of post-consumer wastes. However, the core objective of charity retail is to raise funds in support of charitable activities. This thesis explores the relationships between fundraising and sustainability agendas, suggesting that their compatibility cannot be taken for granted. It critically evaluates the contribution made by charity shops to sustainable resource use, extending prior work on charity shops in light of their recent association with environmental sustainability. The research draws on ethnographic fieldwork, key informant interviews, and a range of secondary data to offer a detailed account of the competing discourses that underpin charity shop operations and shape the trajectories of donated goods. The thesis makes three key arguments. First, it identifies significant tensions between charity and sustainability within charity retail, which limit waste prevention and other forms of impact reduction through charity shops. Second, it indicates that scope for activities in the second-hand economy to deliver sustainability is constrained by the growing volumes of product placed on the market by commercial actors, and the market-conforming governance which permits this. Third, it suggests that charity shops play a role in concealing the unsustainable nature of contemporary production and consumption, and the limitations of current efforts to tackle them. These three interrelated findings demonstrate that charity shops occupy a more ambivalent position in the landscape of consumer capitalism than is presumed by current discourse.

Date of Award	4 Feb 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	David M Evans (Supervisor) & Dale Southerton (Supervisor)