Taylor Swift fans slammed by eco-influencer for making friendship bracelets out of plastic - as she urges them to consider more planet-friendly options

An eco-influencer has slammed Taylor Swift fans for making plastic friendship bracelets.

Charlie Gill, from Manchester, makes content on sustainable living and urges her followers to reuse clothing instead of buying new garments, and resist new trends which might encourage the use of single-use plastic.

Taking to Instagram with her latest crusade, the 32-year-old said she saw that friendship bracelets were trending on her social media feed, and felt she had to speak up about the trend which has taken Swifties by storm.

Fans of the pop billionaire have been trading bright and colourful beaded bracelets at the Eras Tour - which are almost always made from brightly-coloured plastic beads. 

The phenomenon has resulted in an unprecedented boom in sales - with data from eBay showing a 15,200 per cent increase in sales for friendship bracelets and Hobbycraft's increasing by 500 per cent. 

Charlie Gill, from Manchester, makes content on sustainable living and urges her followers not to follow trends and reuse clothing instead of buying new garments

Charlie said on her Instagram page: 'Please can we stop making plastic cool? Taylor Swift is playing in London and my feed is full of people making friendship bracelets.

'I love the idea of making friendship bracelets and sharing them at events but these ones are literally made from small pieces of plastic that will never break down.'

But it seems these friendship bracelets are the hottest trend of the summer, with even the likes of Princess Charlotte and Olympian Sky Brown sporting them.

Charlie continued and said: 'Can we not make friendship bracelets out of colourful string instead? We all know there's a global plastic epidemic and yet we do things like this anyway. 

'How do we think we'll ever not be swimming in plastic?'

The 32-year-old said she saw that friendship bracelets were trending on her social media feed and decided a make a video telling people not to use plastic

There have been reports of businesses and craft stores running out of beads due to the sudden surge in demand, especially in Eras Tour locations (Taylor Swift fans donning friendship bracelets)

The clip racked up thousands of likes and was viewed 73,000 times, however, Charlie recieved criticism for her opinion

Along with increased sales, there have been reports of businesses and craft stores running out of beads due to the sudden surge in demand, especially in Eras Tour locations.

There was even a 'great bead shortage' in Brisbane according to the Courier Mail, with businesses unable to keep up with the huge demand.

Swifties first started making the bracelets due to a lyric in fan-favourite You're On Your Own Kid from the singer's album Midnights: 'So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it / You've got no reason to be afraid.'

Charlie captioned her video: Please can we stop making plastic cool? What do you think about the Taylor Swift friendship bracelet trend?'

The clip racked up thousands of likes and  was viewed 73,000 times, however, Charlie recieved criticism for her opinion. 

One Instagrammer wrote: 'It's not like I throw them away. I even wear my favourite one a lot. And I already had a bunch of beads and string from when i was a child and most of the non-letter beads aren't even plastic. And I'm pretty sure that you can recycle them if you do wanna throw them away.

Another penned: 'Can we stop shaming individuals and start holding accountable the huge corporations actually destroying the world?'

A third said: The difference is people don't throw away bracelets. At worst, they get reused for another bracelet.'

A fourth commented: 'Ok I will stop every type of arts and crafts now. Thanks.'