Many of us are already donating used clothes to centres like the Salvation Army, but there is still a good portion of clothing ending up in landfills. With the need to reduce our carbon, water and waste footprints becoming even more important in 2022, we can start by making a few changes to how we discard of our unwanted clothes.

Did you know?

350’000 tonnes of used but still wearable clothing goes into landfill in the UK every year.

Here are a few ways in which you can reduce, reuse and/or upcycle your unwanted clothes.

DIY T-Shirt Quilt

If you are like me and have collected t-shirts from different shows, festivals, or events, you have been too but now they are all stuffed in a box under your bed wasting storage space. Well, why not make them into a t-shirt quilt for your room. It will be a trip down memory lane for you seeing your different ones and you’ll get that storage back under your bed.

DIY T-Shirt Quilt – Stars for Streetlights

Cotton Face Masks

As we all know, one thing that has ended up becoming a legal essential to our day to day lives lately are face masks. Its no secret that there was a shortage of the N95 and surgical masks when the pandemic was at an all time high. So many people took to upcycling their unwanted cotton clothing to make colourful handmade masks. Please see the link below to see how you can make your own.

How to Make a Homemade Face Mask from a T-Shirt (thesoccermomblog.com)

JEANS

I don’t believe anyone who says they don’t have a favourite pair of jeans. They are the pair that is the right fit, shape and stretch (when we overindulge). When the time comes to throw them in the bin, think again. With denim being a hardly material, it can be upcycled into many things from teddy bears to aprons. Have a look at link below for some creative ways to jazz up your jeans.

21 Ingeniously Creative Ways to Upcycle Old Jeans / Bright Side

Now I know not everyone has the textiles gift when it comes to upcycling your clothes. So other options are:

• Check to see if your council collects clothes and textiles to be recycled.
• Donate items to registered charity shops.
• Some schools often fundraise for local schools, churches, or organisations such as Girl Guides or Scouts. A textile company are arranged to collect your clothes in exchange for money to go towards the chosen cause.
• Many high street retailers such as Primark and M&S offer clothing banks in-store. Meaning when you pop into store, bring along you bag of old clothes to donate.

The UK could save around £3billion per year from the cost of the resources we use to make and clean clothes if we changed the way we supplied, used, and disposed of clothing. It might not seem like you are doing much by dropping a bag of unwanted clothes off at the charity shop, but every little helps to increase the percentage of clothes ending up in landfill

At AR Richards we are passionate that we want people to do the right thing. We feel that is our responsibility as a professional waste company to educate and offer the correct choice to consumers all the time. We work closely with the team at the Salvation Army to ensure that we offer Clothes recycling to our list of recycling options. Sorting your household waste and using the recycling bin is simply stage one of the process. We must ensure that all waste is then handled correctly and most importantly it is reprocessed correctly and in such a manner that it can be reused. This is all part of creating a circular economy.

To find out more please contact the team today; 01630 639 888.