It is estimated that we throw away as much as one million tonnes of textiles every year. When old clothes and textiles are thrown away, they are most likely to end up in a landfill site.

Most of this comes from household sources, but it also comes from fabric and garment factories.

Landfill

Most of the waste produced in the UK ends up in landfill sites. Landfill sites are large areas where land is replaced by rubbish or waste.

Landfill sites pose a threat to local ground water supplies. Every time it rains, water drains through all the rubbish, and picks up chemicals and hazardous materials from whatever is in the landfill site. This includes chemicals used in clothing and textiles such as dyes and bleaches. The water collects at the bottom of the landfill, often in large amounts and can be up to 200 times as toxic as raw sewage.

The second problem with landfillling is the generation of gases as a by-product of decomposition such as methane. Methane can be explosive if it is allowed to build up.

• Recycling reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibres) products will not decompose, while woollen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.
• Recycling results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibres do not have to be transported from abroad.
• By re-using existing fibres and textiles, there is no need to make these textiles from raw materials (such as cotton, wool, and synthetic fibres) This saves on the energy used and pollution caused during manufacturing processes like dying, washing, and scouring.

What you can do to support recycling

1. Take your old clothes to clothes banks and charity shops

Instead of throwing away your old clothes in the rubbish, you can take them to 'clothes banks' or charity shops.

The Salvation Army, Scope, and Oxfam use a clothing bank scheme. Scope also runs a national door-to-door textile collection service. There are about 3,000 textile banks nationwide, and only about a quarter of the space in clothes banks is currently used so there is lots of room for more clothes.

The Salvation Army has the largest number of textile banks in the UK - over 2,000. On average, each of these banks collects about six tonnes of textiles per year. These clothes are given to the homeless, sold in charity shops or sold in developing countries in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and parts of Eastern Europe. Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes, and any un-wearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled and used as factory wiping cloths.

2. Support fashion brands, charity shops and businesses which use second-hand and recycled products

More and more designers and businesses are now making fashion ranges out of recycled clothes, recycled fabrics or fibres.

Some examples are Junky Styling, which makes clothes from old suits, and Patagonia, which uses recycled drinks bottles for some of its fleece products.

TRAID is a charity committed to protecting the environment and reducing world poverty by recycling and campaigning at home. Traid has shops all over London, and as well as selling second-hand clothes, it sells clothes which have been customised by Traid designers and turned into something completely new.

3. Customise your own clothes or clothes you have bought second-hand from charity shops

It is amazing what you can create from something you thought you would never wear again with a little imagination.

Customising your own clothes means that you can create your own unique style, to suit your taste and lifestyle.

All Your Junk provides you with the ease and efficiency to clear and re-cycle all your unwanted items. Let us help you clean out all those unwanted bits of junk that clutter up your lives. Our business is built to take the grunt out of the job for you, we will collect from anywhere in the house or office, clean up after ourselves and promise to re-cycle as much of the junk as possible.

From your first phone call to All Your Junk , you will experience a prompt, reliable and friendly service. We know how important your time is, and it is our job to make it easy for you. At All Your Junk, we will establish suitable meeting times with you so that you can plan your day accordingly. Its that simple. We will even phone you before your arranged time to confirm.

We are motivated to be the best in the business.  All calls will promptly be answered by a Sales Consultant who will answer your queries and take bookings. We have  a fleet of well equipped tippers at the ready, and an energized team of customer-focused staff - all working together to handle your clearance and re-cycling needs promptly and reliably.

Our teams comprise hardworking individuals who share a passion for excellent customer service - we want you to become a "Raving Fan" of our service.  Just call us on 0800 032 8972 or 078 1455 9850 to book your time slot. Phones open on weekends as well.

Our rubbish removals include house clearance, office clearance, garden clearances, plain old junk and waste disposal.

Some of the areas we coverAddlestone, Ashford, Bedford, Byfleet, Chertsey, Central London, Cobham, Croydon, East Central London, Esher, Feltham, Hanworth, Ham, Hampton, Hounslow, Isleworth, Kingston Upon Thames, New Maldern, Purley, Putney, Richmond, Sheen, South London, South West London, Staines, Strawberry Hill, Sutton, Teddington, Twickenham, Walton on Thames, West Central London, West London, Weybridge, Whitton (Postal Codes EC, WC, SW, W, TW, KT, SM, CR, BR, UB, HA)

About 400 tonnes of electrical equipment is being recycled in Wiltshire every month rather than going to landfill.

The county council said it wanted more people to take electrical goods to its household recycling centres.

Councillor Toby Sturgis said: "Our household recycling centres are well used and one of the reasons why we have such an impressive recycling record."

More than 40% of all the household waste in the county is now recycled.

Recyle your electrical goods with us today call 0800 032 8972 or 078 1455 9850

Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, is issuing a reminder urging all holidaymakers to recycle their used holiday brochures instead of binning them and sending them to landfill

Last year 45 million holidays abroad where taken from the UK¹ and considering that for every holiday sold four brochures are produced², a staggering total of around 180 million brochures are being distributed each year – which, if placed end to end would stretch from London to Sydney three times³!

One of the busiest times of the year when consumers pick up their new holiday brochures is August and September to start looking for next year’s holiday. This is also the time when they start thinking of disposing of last year’s brochures now that the summer is nearly over. With this in mind, Recycle Now has teamed up with the UK’s leading independent charity for sustainable tourism and travel, The Travel Foundation, to encourage consumers to remember to recycle their old holiday brochures.

Sue Hurdle, Chief Executive of The Travel Foundation said:

"The Travel Foundation is delighted to support Recycle Now in its call to holidaymakers to recycle those old holiday brochures rather than binning them. It's another link in the chain of reducing the negative impact of travel and if we all recycle, it will make a big difference."

Many tour operators are becoming more aware of their environmental responsibilities and are recycling their old brochures.

Jane Ashton, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at First Choice said:

"At First Choice we recycle our excess brochures within the business, and are working on cutting down the paper we use.  We very much encourage our customers to recycle their holiday brochures at home - everything we can do together to recycle paper helps the environment."

Top ‘green’ solutions for old holiday brochures

Recycle Now has provided some simple tips to help holidaymakers find the best ‘green’ solutions for dealing with their old holiday brochures:

• When finished with them put the brochures in your kerbside recycling collection or take them to your local recycling centre;
• Browse and book your holiday online to save paper;
• Pass your used brochures to family, friends or neighbours so they can use them instead of getting new ones;
• Contact local playschools to see if they would be interested in taking the magazines to use for creative projects.

Amanda Barry Hirst, Head of Public Relations at Recycle Now said:

“People often take numerous brochures from their travel agents to find their ideal holiday, but many don’t know what to do with them once they are out of date. It’s now easier than ever to book online but if you do need to pick up a brochure then think how it can be recycled or reused once finished. The simplest is for holidaymakers to take advantage of their easy and convenient doorstep recycling service or drop them off at their nearest recycling centre.  But it is also worth considering alternatives such as passing them on or using them for children’s creative projects.”

For further information on recycling, please visit www.recyclenow.com.

Editors Notes 

^{1 & 2} ABTA

³ Working out carried out using the average length of a holiday brochure as 29cm and 1 mile = 1609.344 metres

45 million holidays x 4 = 180 million

29cm x 180 million brochures = 5,220,000,000cm

5,220,000,000cm / 100cm = 52,200,000metres

52,200,000 metres / 1609.344 metres = 32,435.57 miles

Distance from London to Sydney, Australia = 10,600 miles

32,436 miles / 10,600 miles = 3

RecycleNow

Launched by Sir Matthew Pinsent in September 2004, Recycle Now is the multi-media national recycling campaign, implemented and managed by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) on behalf of Government. The aim of the campaign is to encourage more people to recycle more stuff, more often.

WRAP

1. WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimize landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
2. Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4. More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk and for more details on the Recycle Now campaign visit www.recyclenow.com