Christmas recycling is underway. Over 28 million people in Italy will give a gift received under the tree. And someone will resell it online. There is a boom in reselling (reselling unappreciated gifts online) and regifting (donating a gift received to third parties). A trend, analyzes Confcooperative, which generates overall savings of 3.5 billion euros, 100 million more than last year and 200 million more than pre-Covid Christmas.
One in two people choose to transform Christmas gifts into savings or earnings opportunities. “This is an old habit that has turned into a consolidated trend in recent years,” explains the report. A dynamic that asserts itself despite a constant increase in thirteenths, which went from 45.7 billion in 2022 to 51.3 billion this year.
There are different forms of Christmas recycling. 60% of recyclers reuse the gifts received to give them away on other occasions (with a slight prevalence of women, 52% compared to 48% of men). 20% resell unwanted gifts online, an activity where men (57%) outnumber women (43%). Finally, the remaining part chooses to exchange gifts in shops, transforming them into shopping vouchers or replacing them with alternative objects.
At the top of the most recycled gifts are foodstuffs (45%): wines, sparkling wines, cured meats and cheeses. In second place are fashion accessories and cosmetics (26%) followed by books and diaries (20%). Toys, on the other hand, are less recycled, stopping at 9%. This year Italians spent 7.6 billion euros on Christmas gifts. According to a Coldiretti/Ixè survey there was a 5% drop compared to 2023. And food and wine products were the most popular gifts and are now the most recycled, confirming the attention to saving and sustainability.
Recycling (whether reselling or regifting) is a response to the high cost of living and also a sign of increased attention to sustainability, extending the life of products and avoiding the creation of new waste. There are 28 million people who “reuse” the gifts found under the tree, but only 20% resell them, the majority instead recycle them for now or in the future, saving and optimizing the resources available.
