How Used Mannequins Contribute to Sustainable Retailing

Next month is when we celebrate Earth Day and a lot of focus will be on sustainable retailing and eco fashion. Both of these efforts focus reducing the environmental impact of the manufacture of clothing.  At Mannequin Madness our environmental impact is at the store level.

While the manufacturing of clothing does consume a lot of resources and also wastes them.  There is also a lot of waste that takes place at the store level where the clothing are displayed.

When retailers remodel or close locations they throw the mannequins they no longer need in the trash.

Even if they are in perfectly good condition.

Mannequins are constructed out of materials – fiberglass, styrofoam, metal – which do not belong in the landfill. Materials that would never biodegrade.

All the mannequins in this blog post are examples of what would have been thrown away if we had not recycled them.

By recycle that means we take their used mannequins and then resell them on our website at discounted prices. Sometimes our customers use the mannequins as is other times they repurpose them into art projects.  Like this decoupage torso.

Mannequins are like the “chorus girl” in the background and their role is to make the star of the show (the garments) look good. So that is why sometimes their contribution is overlooked.

So while all the emphasis on eco fashion is on the clothing, we just wanted to make you aware the retail sustainability takes place at all level of the retail ecosystem.