Our passion for the waste industry, the environment and our community runs deep with us at Cromwell, and we continually seek and pursue opportunities to support these values. As part of our commitment to supporting our local community, we are pleased to be members of ‘We are Sherburn’ a group of business and community leaders that have the passion, experience and expertise to create a collaborative group that aim to help make our hometown, Sherburn in Elmet a great community to live and work. It was during a monthly meeting that the idea of a charitable clothing collection arose – and our interest and keenness to join were instantly peaked.
Charitable Clothing Collection
During the June meeting of ‘We are Sherburn’, a presentation was delivered by local nursery, Peter Pan, who also run a charity shop with the same name. Both located in Sherburn in Elmet. Peter Pan is a SEN pre-school nursery for children and families with additional needs, they work hard to support children who need extra support with learning and development. The Nursery is supported by their sister Charity Shop, run solely by volunteers, where all funds raised goes directly back into supporting the nursery, supplying equipment, special staff and 121 level of specialist support, which is particularly important to support the children who have disabilities.
During the meeting, it became apparent the severe lack of donations for good quality clothing for the shop, in particular adult apparel – which is resulting in a drop in funds raised for the school. The presentations appealed to the audience, which was a sea of local businesses, asking for their help to join their mass clothing collection within their companies – Cromwell happily joined the masses and agree to organise an in house collection. We quickly informed staff of the charitable clothing donation, and the team immediately took action and cleared out their wardrobes in aid of the cause. We had an incredible response, with 17 large bags of pre-loved clothes now being sent to the charity shop, ready to be re-used and re-sold to raise funds. It was great to see so many of our staff members taking the time to support the local charity, and thus the planet.
How this helps the planet
But what impact does a clothing collection have on the planet? WRAP share statistics that an estimated £140 million worth of clothing is sent to UK landfill each year, if we continue on the path we are taking, this will triple the demand for raw materials by 2050. With a shocking 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from the fashion and textiles industry – this all reiterates the importance of textile reuse and recycling. Charity shops, just like Sherburn’s Peter Pan, are a great resource to help give unwanted clothing a new lease of life. They are a popular outlet to find great clothes at bargain prices, whilst raising funds for charities and also helping reduce the waste sent to landfill. For clothing that isn’t sold, or is unwearable, the end of life solution still remains a sustainable one, as they are sold as scrap fabric and recycled. We have now donated 17 bags for re-use or recycling, helping save this quantity being potentially sent to landfills, where they would take many hundreds of years to even begin to decay.
Further Supporting the charity
We were delighted to be able to support Peter Pan with our clothing donations, but this wasn’t our first run-in with the charity – in fact our relationship with them dates back many years, as we donate our refuse sacks to them to support their recycling strategies. Any clothing, furniture, shoes, or other donations which are not suitable for sale, or have not been sold after a certain period of time, are eligible for recycling – the charity shop works with many different recovery outlets, depending on the material type to ensure their unwanted good are recycling and not send to landfill. This is where we donate our refuse and compactor sacks, for the charity shop to capture and contain the goods ready for the recycling teams to collect. The donation is not only keeping funds in the shop, which supports the SEN Nursery – but of cause supports good recycling strategies, which we are always pleased to support.
If you have an abundance of old clothing, send your pre-loved items to a charity shop or for recycling. No matter what the waste – landfill should always be a last resort – reduce, reuse and recycle wherever we can for a cleaner, greener more resourceful planet.