Rotaro Rental

Clothing rental platforms: a sustainable solution to our ‘what to wear?’ dilemmas?

For many, another date in the diary means another outfit to plan and buy. Rotaro re-thinks the way in which we buy and use clothing, supporting a shift towards circularity within the clothing industry. Rotaro is a renting platform for occasion wear that seeks to challenge the ‘buy to wear once’ mindset. The website enables users to exchange pieces from their wardrobe for a small fee or rent an outfit to use once before returning it. With different categories covering various price points and clothing styles, the site offers labels for a fraction of the price. This essentially reduces the carbon, water, and energy-intensive production processes needed to supply demand in fast fashion clothing through the recycling and reuse of clothing in the market. 

The cyclical nature of their business model means that products have a longer lifecycle, meaning demand for clothing products: 

• Creates less waste

• Uses less water 

• Emits less greenhouse gasses

Sustainable packaging

As for the actual rental process, Rotaro choose to package rentals in recyclable boxes or reusable fabric bags, which are then delivered Carbon Neutral. Once worn and returned to headquarters, clothes are cleaned using the Ozone method - a thorough cleaning method designed to have minimal environmental impact.

The brand has also partnered up with Ecologi to form the Rotaro Reforestation Initiative, working together to offset the carbon footprint of their venture. Every clothing rental has the impact of planting one tree, through this commitment Rotato aims to become climate positive. As of December 2022, they had planted almost 6,500 trees and continue to support projects around the world. Rotaro are directly responsible for reducing 38 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

References

Ecologi (no date). Available at: https://ecologi.com/rotaro (Accessed: December 26, 2022).

Rotaro (no date). Available at: https://www.rotaro.co.uk/ (Accessed: December 26, 2022).

Sustainability (no date) Rotaro. Available at: https://www.rotaro.co.uk/pages/sustainability (Accessed: December 26, 2022).