Plastic coat hangers? I hate them. They are rubbish, break easily and are bad for your clothes.
They are usually given away with a purchase of clothing..
Even if you refuse the hanger don’t fondly think it is automatically going to be reused. Many clothes now are bought, ready- hung from the manufacturer. They are not hung in store.
Some of the larger coat hangers may be reused at home but there is a limit to how many coat hangers you need.

And if you are talking knickers vests and the like, those hangers are little more than one-use disposables. Unless you have a strange fetish for them, you don’t keep them and the stores certainly don’t reuse them.

The amount of waste created by these disposable hangers in phenomenal. It is claimed the USA alone they get through 8 billion plastic /wire hangers a year . – enough to fill the empire states building 4 times over. You can  find a lot more statistics on hanger abuse here.

And no recycling is not the answer!

Saying NO to plastic coat hangers

Refuse – I try to buy un-hung clothes when ever possible. That means clothes that are not displayed on hangers.

1. What To Do With Plastic Hangers

   Reuse – but if you do end up with unwanted hangers you can try giving them away.  Charity shops sometimes need more coat hangers and you can often get rid of them them via  free cycle.

   Return I don’t have many clothes that need dry cleaning, but when I do get that done, I return the hanger.

   Plastic Free Alternatives

   At Home

   Wooden Hangers At home I hang my clothes on wooden hangers. I buy mine from wherever I see them (including Ikea).

   In Shops

   If you are a shop owner or dry cleaner and you really need a disposable hanger – here’s are some addresses for cardboard hangers you can recycle.

   U.K Hangers Of London

   Defenda are made in the U.K.

   If you are questioning your use of plastic or wire coat hangers, due to the environmentally devastating effect their disposal has on landfill each year, you will be delighted to know that an alternative exists.

   DEFENDA Green Hangers Are Environmentally Friendly Corrugated Cardboard Clothes Hangers / Coat Hangers.
   UK Manufactured For Reduced Import Miles

   These Strong ECO-FRIENDLY Corrugated Alternatives To Plastic & Metal Wire Coat Hangers Are Produced From Recycled Corrugated Board & Are 100% Recyclable. They Are Ideal For Commercial Or Domestic Use i.e. Dry Cleaning Companies, Laundrettes, Clothes Shops / Retailers etc

   They Are Also A Safer Option For Organisations Where Safety Is a Concern Such As: HM Prison Services, Mental Health Facilities, Care & Nursing Homes & Many Other Institutions Where Metal Or Plastic Hangers Can Be Used As Weapons Or Allow For Self-Harming Among Patients.

   SUPPLIED TO UK & EUROPEAN COUNTRIES – CALL COVENTRY 02476 422000 FOR INFORMATION

   Or these Normn Hangers

   The Solid Board that the hangers are made from is 100% recycled. The hangers too are 100% recyclable after you are done using them. So when its time for fresh ones, you can just pop the old ones into the paper recycling and they’ll re-surface perhaps as a paper cup, stationary or maybe even into a new, cool sustainable hanger. PLUS our hangers are printed with vegetable-based inks – they do absolutely no harm to nature.

   Sustainability in manufacturing

   All our hangers are produced by our exclusive partner Smurfit Kappa. They are one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of paper-based packaging products. They have also won several sustainability awards. We continuously work closely with Smurfit Kappa to research and develop new models of perfectly crafted, sustainable hangers.

   Abroad

   USA 

   This company are promoting a solution; a fibre board biodegradable hanger and a campaign against the plastic hanger . Here is their promotional material

   Plastic hanger facts
   Approximately 85% of plastic retail hangers no reused or recycled
   90% of America’s clothes now imported
   30-40 billion clothes come into the United States on plastic hangers
   85% of 30-40 billion is 25. > 34 billion hangers into landfills every year.
   34 billion landfilled hangers would fill almost 20 Empire State Buildings
   40 billion hangers end to end would stretch 8 million miles, far beyond the orbit of the moon—every year.
   Polystyrene hangers off-gas benzene in clothing and leaches benzene into the ground water.
   Polycarbonate hangers leach bisphenol-a into ground water.
   Plastic hangers take over 1,000 years to break down in an anerobic landfill. All for a one-time use.
   Why so many hangers?
   Growing industry trend of one-use plastic hangers
   Garments on Hangers (GOH) – hangers are put on clothing overseas by clothing manufacturer and shipped to store already on hanger
   Each hanger is one-use and garment replacing sold product has it’s own hanger.
   Hanger is now outsourced to clothing manufacturer who includes the price of the hanger into their Cost of Goods (COG)
   Its cheaper for the clothing retailer to use one-use hangers but plastic is a poor material to make any product that is one-use, especially one with so much plastic in it.
   Companies who use Garment on Hangers are Wal-Mart, Old Navy, C&A, Target, Kmart, Coles and most department stores.
   Aren’t plastic hangers recyclable?
   Cheaper to landfill than to recycle
   Cheaper to make new plastic hangers than recycle
   Multiple materials (metal hook and clips, rubber or vinyl no-slip pads, 7 different types of plastic) make recycling impractical if not impossible.
   Where do plastic hangers go if I don’t take them after I buy clothing? Answer: in a box under the counter then out to the back.
   How much waste per store?
   One clothing company’s flagship store in San Francisco that uses the GOH system said
   They throw away approximately 95% of their plastic hangers every day.
   They replace from 8,000 to 28,000 garments everyday
   That means they throw away from 7,600 to 26,600 hangers every day.
   Why do companies that say they are green use such a wasteful system where up to 19.5 Empire State Buildings of plastic hangers landfilled?
   Because hangers are invisible to the consumer
   The wire hanger was patented in 1890
   The plastic retail hanger was invented in the 60’s
   There’s been no innovation, so the hangers have become invisible
   They are so prevalent that no one sees them anymore
   Hanger companies and retail clothing companies are very quiet about this extreme waste stream
   Hanger companies stay in business
   Retailers save by using one-use GOH plastic hangers

   What’s the solution?
   Tell your local retailer that you do not like plastic hangers in stores that you buy at.
   that up to 34 billion of those plastic retail hangers go into your municipal landfill.
   that they are not green if they use plastic hangers – even recycled plastic hangers.
   Tell them that 85% of all plastic hangers end up in landfills.
   Tell them to use a sustainable material such as paper fiberboard hangers that can be recycled at the store or at consumer curbside pickups
   Join the Anti Plastic Hanger Movement and stop the 36 billion plastic hangers that get thrown into local landfills everyyear to save retail companies money!

   You can see all our posts on clothing, fabrics and the plastic-free wardrobe here.