Idea 3 - Second Hand September - Bradley Stoke Zero Carbon Community

Help people and the planet! 🌍

I’m going to try this in September. I have a wardrobe full of clothes but most probably only wear about 30% of it. That 30% is usually reworn out of the clean washing pile and rarely makes it back to the wardrobe! This month I will dig a little deeper and get some more wear out of the other 70%.

The link below explains a little bit more about the idea and also the scary fact that 11million items of clothing goes to landfill every year. Hold that thought, I am just checking my facts on the Oxfam website, and it is in fact 11million items of clothing every week. How is that even possible?

It seems strange to me that people don’t take unwanted clothes to a charity shop. I guess people think the charity shops won’t be able to sell them so just bin them instead. Oxfam at least send 0% of their donations to landfill. The video at the bottom of the webpage explains how they avoid landfill by coming up with lots of other ways to use the material.

I am also lucky that my child has older cousins who usually arrive with a bag of ‘hand me down’ clothes every few months.

There is something quite exciting about having a look through a bag of free clothes.

The best clothes go for everyday wear, the older things are perfect for nursery or forest school and anything I know we won’t use always goes to a charity shop.

This week/month can you avoid buying new clothes?

Maybe…

Try out some charity shops

Attend a clothes swap event

Here are two I have found this month.

The Clevedon Clothes Exchange has one on September 4th 7-8:30.

Or spin City Bristol Clothes Exchange September 28th 1-3pm

Donate to a charity shop

Donate to a baby bank

Check with other friends/families to see if they would be interested in you passing some ‘hand me down’ clothes to them.

Sell some clothes / or bundles of clothes through a website.

Anything has to be better than things going to landfill.

Enjoy fishing out those clothes at the back of the wardrobe or picking up a bargain though one of the ideas above.