RECYCLING
Smart clothes
According to research, almost a third of clothes hanging
in the average wardrobe will not have been worn in the
last year. Now is the time for that big clear-out.
T
he national Love Your
Clothes campaign run by
Waste Resource and Action
Programme (WRAP) found
that approximately 30% of clothes,
the equivalent of £260, had not
been donned for 12 months
or longer.
In fact, about 1.4million
tonnes of textiles, mainly
made up of these unloved
clothes and shoes, and also
linens like bedding and
curtains, get disposed of
each year in the UK when
they could either have been
reused or recycled.
This equates to an
estimated £238million-worth
of textiles sent to landfill
unnecessarily.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You can ‘upcycle’ the items
of clothing or linens if you
fancied taking the increasingly
trendy route of adapting and
enhancing old garments.
There is a growing number of
sewing classes in the area to
help you achieve this. Or you
could just donate them to a
charity shop.
Otherwise, even more
simply, you can use your
nearest textile collections
bank – there are many of them dotted
around the borough, which accept
clothing, blankets and linens. Other
similar materials such as clean tea
towels, odd socks and towels are also
accepted. Later in the year the council
plans to provide more textile banks,
particularly on estates.
It can be even easier for you to do if
you put out any unwanted clothing in
your green recycling box on your next
weekly collection day. Just make sure
you put them in a bag to
keep them dry – and tie any
pairs of shoes together.
Alternatively, you could
look out for local ‘swishing’
events, where you can swap
your clothes.
WHAT IS THE POINT?
The textiles collected in the
banks and in your green box
are taken away and sorted
according to their condition
into different grades. They
are either then sent to be
reused or recycled into a
different product.
It is calculated that
recovering and recycling just
10% of the waste currently
sent to landfill in the UK
could generate savings
of around £23.8million a
year, which would not only
help our economy but the
environment too.
Visit
loveyourclothes.org.uk
around ealing
Summer 2014
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