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How to Recycle Your Old Clothes

How to Recycle Your Old Clothes

Did you know that approximately 350,000 tonnes of clothes go to landfill in the UK every year? That’s enough to fill nearly 9000 lorries!

Here at Kwik Sweep, we do our very best to ensure we send as little waste to landfill as possible, and we’d like to bring this number down.

Where do all those clothes come from?

From coats and jumpers to summer dresses, shoes and shorts, the average UK household owns around £4,000 worth of clothes – and rising.

Why do we own so many?

Young children grow at an astonishing speed, becoming too big for their clothes almost as quickly as mums and dads can buy them.

Fashion-lovers buy new clothes every season as the trends change, while unwanted hats, scarves or gloves given for Christmas or birthdays soon start to pile up…

 

How can we avoid sending our clothes to landfill?

Sending a little waste to landfill as possible is the most environmentally and economically sound way to sustain our modern lifestyles and keep the planet safe for our children.

 

Here are three ways you can reduce the amount of old or unwanted clothes sent to landfill:

Gifting

If your children have grown out of their dungarees and playsuits, do you know anyone else with young children who might be grateful for them? Perhaps you have young nieces or nephews? Or your friends have kids?

Spread the word at the school gates, put a sign up at nursery, or use Facebook to offer your children’s outgrown clothes to other parents – and don’t forget to encourage them to gift them onwards to someone else in the future!

 

Charity 

Do you know where your local Oxfam or Save the Children is? Charity shops are always looking for clothes to spruce up and sell on, and they’ll be happy to accept bagfuls of your unwanted items.

If your local charity shop is too far away or not accepting clothing donations, there are thousands of clothing donation banks dotted all around the country. Just like posting a letter. you can simply drop your unwanted garments inside, and volunteers will collect them and distribute them to those in need.

Try the TRAID ‘Find a Bank’ app to locate yours:

http://www.traid.org.uk/clothes-donations/find-a-bank/

 

Do try not to donate anything which needs repairs (e.g. a missing button or dropped them) as the volunteers are unlikely to have time to fix them, so your unwanted clothes may just go straight to landfill.

 

Repurposing 

If you’re nifty with a needle and a pair of scissors. old clothes offer all sorts of opportunity for re-purposing.

An unwanted summer dress with a great print or pattern can be turned into cushions, while old jeans cut off above the knee make easy denim shorts.

If none of these options suit you, don’t worry! Our waste removal service will dispose of your clothes as ethically and efficientally as possible.

If you need a hand getting rid of your old clothes, call Kwik Sweep on 0207 624 9215 to see what we can do for you.

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