Buying a new outfit or three is most girls’ (and a fair few men’s) idea of fun, but although throw-away fashion can satisfy most budgets, the implications of fast fashion and keeping the prices low for consumers often cost the environment a great deal more. Every single year in the UK, over 900 million items of clothing are cast aside and typically find their way straight into landfill.

One way of preventing such a waste of textile products in the UK is to recycle unwanted clothes. There are a number of options available to people to enable them to do this, such as selling them on at car boot sales or on eBay, putting them in recycling bins, such as those for textile recycling organisation TRAID, or donating them to charity shops. This ensures a new life for clothes, shoes and other textiles, as well as many other unwanted items, and also reduces the ridiculous amount of waste being shipped off to landfill each year.

Supporting charity shops also helps raise money for a wealth of causes, from third world charities like Oxfam, children’s charities such as Barnardos and NSPCC, animal organisations, both national charities like PDSA and local organisations that support local animal homes and shelters, charities supporting the elderly and infirm, and many cancer and hospice shops such as Douglas MacMillan in the Midlands, Marie Curie Cancer Care and The Donna Louise Trust. And in addition to knowing that donations given and the money you spend supporting these charities will work hard to make a difference to many lives around the world, your money will go further and your green credentials get a welcome boost. (more…)