Burberry burns £28m of unsold luxury clothes a year

Upmarket British fashion label Burberry destroyed more than £28 million in unwanted products this year to stop them falling into the 'grey market' and being bought by the 'wrong' people, the Daily Mail reported.

The newspaper reported that the high-end clothing brand, known for its £1,450 trench coats and checked design, has witnessed the value of its waste rise by 50 percent in two years amid a continued downturn in sales.

More than £90 million of Burberry products have been destroyed over the past five years, according to the report.

Burberry admitted they burn unsold stock but said they worth with specialist incinerators to harness the energy produced, The Times reports.

Insiders suggest that luxury brands destroy unwanted products to protect their intellectual property and brand values and as it is claimed, do not want their products to be sold at discount rates elsewhere, or sold to 'wrong' type of people, thus devaluing the brand.

Burberry defended their actions, claiming it is an industry-wide practice although it left environmentalists angered.

However, it is not only Burberry who engage in the act. High-street retail giant H&M admited to burning unwanted stock to help power Vastera, a small Swedish city.

Also, Richemont, the company owning the Cartier and Montblanc brands, had destroyed more than £400 million of watches in two years after buying back unwanted stock from jewellers.

Meanwhile, Brits binned £12.5 billion of clothes last year, sending some 300,000 tonnes to landfills.