Porta urges Brits to give unwanted Christmas gifts a second life

More than £1bn of unwanted items are set to change hands this festive season, with 58% of UK adults receiving at least one.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, December 16, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Porta – a new delivery platform that makes moving items simple, up to 60% cheaper and with 80% fewer emissions – today calls attention to the environmental and financial impact of unwanted Christmas gifts, and the growing need to keep usable items in circulation.

According to research from Finder1, 58% of UK adults expect to receive at least one Christmas gift they don’t want – totalling £1.27 billion worth of unwanted items, or around £41 per person on average.

Simultaneously, the Government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs2 warns that £42 million worth of unwanted Christmas presents end up in landfill annually, representing items that are often brand new, unused and perfectly suitable for resale, re-gifting or reuse.

Edward Spence, CEO and Co-Founder of Porta: “We’re buying more than ever at Christmas, but we’re also wasting more than ever. Perfectly good items are being thrown away when they could be given a second life. The reality is that people now have more options than ever before to rehome what they don’t need; whether that’s donating, selling, or simply passing things on to someone who’ll value them. Delivery shouldn’t be the barrier, and that’s where Porta comes in.”

Unwanted items carry both a financial cost and an environmental one, as they generate further emissions through delivery, storage and returns. Millions of parcels linked to unwanted Christmas gifts are delivered every year, representing journeys that contribute avoidable carbon emissions during the busiest shopping period of the year.

Porta’s model eliminates the need for dedicated courier trips by connecting customers with professional, vetted couriers who are already travelling along the same route. The model turns underused vehicle capacity into affordable, sustainable delivery, making deliveries up to 60% cheaper and cutting emissions by up to 80%.

Porta is seeing surging demand from shoppers using digital marketplaces to sell or pass on unwanted gifts – particularly on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Etsy. With Porta managing end-to-end deliveries and thousands of couriers nationwide, on-track to manage 1,000 deliveries over the festive period, the business is establishing itself as the logistics partner for buyers and sellers who need reliable, low-cost and efficient delivery.

Spence added: “The second-hand economy is booming, but delivery has always been the sticking point – especially when the item is bulky or the recipient lives far away. Porta removes that friction. By using spare capacity in vehicles that are already on the road, we make it dramatically easier, cheaper and greener for people to pass items on.

“The greenest van is the one already on the road. If we can make the process of moving, reselling or donating things effortless, we can prevent millions of perfectly good items from being wasted, and help people make a little money back in the process.

“This Christmas, we’re encouraging shoppers to think twice before binning an unwanted gift. There is almost always someone out there who wants it, and with Porta, it’s never been easier to get it to them.”

1https://www.finder.com/uk/banking/unwanted-gifts
2https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/13/sustainable-festivities-how-you-can-reduce-your-waste-this-christmas

James Coghlan
Influence Associates Limited
email us here

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