SCHOOL UNIFORM EXCHANGE

Why should WE recycle old clothes? Recycling clothes instead of sending them straight to landfill is far more environmentally friendly. Did you realize that:

• Most clothes contain plastic. They can take hundreds of years to break down in landfill, and can contaminate the environment with dyes and chemicals.
• Clothes have quite a large carbon footprint, even before you throw them out, because of the production process
• Waste generated from clothes is equivalent to 2.1 billion tons a year worldwide.
• Only 15% of clothing is estimated to be recycled, leaving 85% not currently recycled.

How can we improve things?  Recycling clothes has many benefits, like using existing materials and reducing our reliance on natural resources like oil, water, and energy. Through the reuse of existing materials, recycling can reduce the need for raw resources like the production of cotton or the extraction of oil. This results in significant reductions in energy use. Clothes recycling can even reduce the impact on animals and the environment, e.g., by using less virgin wool, we can reduce the demand for farm animals.