Ep 71: Reweave the future: innovative solutions to reduce textile waste

Join us for this interesting podcast episode where we look at innovative and straightforward ways to reduce our textile waste. #ReweaveTheFuture #ChallengeToChange #BeTheChange #TextileWaste #FastFashion #CharityShops #Thrift #Ethical #Reuse #Upcycle #Recycle

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi there and welcome to theChallenge to Change podcast.
My name is Hazel and thispodcast is all about the
little changes we can all makethat will have a positive
effect upon planet Earth. Ifyou're new here, welcome. If
you've listened before,welcome back. The Challenge to

(00:33):
Change podcast has beenbrought to you on behalf of
ANSA Environmental Services.To find out more about ANSA,
please visit ANSA.co.uk.Let's get into the podcast
episode. So welcome to theChallenge to Change podcast.

(00:55):
In this episode, I will betalking to Alison and Carol.
So Alison is a colleague ofmine here at ANSA
Environmental Services andCarole is one of our amazing
volunteers. So we're going tobe talking about textiles. So
textiles, textile waste, we'regoing to be talking about
different options to reduceour textile waste. So welcome

(01:17):
Alison and welcome Carole.Thank you so much for being
here. So, so let's, let'sstart with them. How we can
kind of reduce our textilewaste in one of the most
ethical ways. So thinkingabout charity shops and that
kind of thing is obviously aviable option here in the UK,

(01:39):
something that we can all do.Most people have a charity
shop fairly close to theirhouse. So what kinds of
textiles do charity shopsusually accept carole2? I know
you're an expert on this. Theygenerally accept anything,
really. The criteria is clean.If it's rags, they prefer it

(02:02):
to be sorted into rags by theperson dropping it off first.
It saves volunteers having togo through bags of clothes.
But clean is the main thing.If it's going into rags, they
will accept torn. Ripped,broken zips because it all
goes off to what we call theragman and then starts a

(02:25):
different life. Anything cleanwill go into the shop. Yeah,
so obviously that charity shopis looking at those items and
deciding is it saleable, is itnot. So obviously there are
other options as well alongthe side charity shops. So
we've got things like textiletake-back schemes, Which is an

(02:46):
option we've got I think onpublic car parks near to
supermarkets, there's clothingbanks as well. I mean I feel
that perhaps in the majorityof cases the charity shop is
if you like the more ethicaloption but I suppose it
depends on what's easiestmaybe for the individual. I

(03:07):
think the benefit for somepeople who work full time is
that the clothes banks areopen at any hour. Because the
one thing you mustn't do isleave your bags outside a
charity shop because that'sactually classed fly tipping.
All charity shops can thentake those in because they
don't know what's containedwithin the bags. I'm glad that

(03:29):
you've raised that actuallybecause I think that is
something that's so worthtalking about. Charity aren't
supposed to take them inbecause we don't know what's
in them. We have items that wecan't accept. They could be
putting themselves at greatrisk then, which then
obviously the charities show.Yeah, I think what people

(04:00):
don't realise is that thatthen costs the charity shop

(04:28):
To dispose of as rubbishbecause they cannot take it
and open it up and sell it inthe shop. So it then actually
costs that company, thatcharity, to dispose of that
donation. If you are donatingtextiles to a charity shop and

(04:51):
they're shut, then the bestthing you can do is you want
to get rid of them there andthen, It's to go and put them
in a clothes bank.So I suppose as well I think
you know if you've got lots ofthings that you're wanting

(05:13):
pass on so maybe you've gotsome children's toys maybe
you've got clothes maybeyou've got books it's probably
useful for the individual toput them in to sort them out
first before you know so ifthey do end up in that
situation where they've gotthings They've got things for
the clothing banks but they'vealso got children's toys and

(05:34):
they're really going to haveto either keep it all back and
do it another day or drop someof it off in the clothing bank
and then keep some of it back.It's always worth separating.
I've been doing new researchbefore and seeing which
charity shop takes which itemsbecause it's the one I
volunteer at, we don't takeany children's items because
we're just not big enough. Oneof the things that is

(05:59):
generally fly tipped ischildren's toys which is such
a shame because they coulddonate them to a school or
nursery. They could take themto another charity shop. They
could put them on one of thelocal freebie sites. There is
so many options really.There's so many things you can
do but it just takes time andyou need to build up a network

(06:22):
of contacts so you know whotakes what. Yeah absolutely,
absolutely. So it's worth justrecapping on that. Yeah
definitely, I think aboutdoing that research before you
take stuff to a charity shopWe were saying outside of this

(06:45):
recording that it's soimportant to find out what the
opening hours are of thecharity shop in question so
you've got that as part ofyour plan so you know that
you're going to get there whenthey're open. And maybe if you
can, maybe give them a ring orpop in the day before, if
that's not an option, makesure you've allowed yourself

(07:05):
time to go into the charityshop and say, okay, do you
take these? Do you take these?And then have a, I guess,
maybe a plan B maybe for someof the stuff. You can email
them. They've all got emailaddresses. You don't even have
to phone them. You can send anemail and just list the things
that you want him to drop offand they will tell you. Which

(07:28):
of those items they can't takeand then they don't generally
tell you then where you cantake them to. That's normally
down to your own research. Butif you ask the volunteers in
the charity shops they willgenerally know where is
currently taking those items.So I suppose as well I think

(07:49):
for people listening it'simportant just to have in mind
that We perhaps can'trealistically expect to be
able to deal with everythingwe've got in one fell swoop.
We've got to have thatawareness that there will be a
little of time taken inpassing those things on in the
correct way so that we don'tnegatively impact on that

(08:10):
charity. That charity hasn'tthen got to deal with these
items that they want to sellin their particular shop. So I
think you were saying that Thecharity shop I believe that
you volunteer at Carole, theydon't take children's clothes,
is that correct? No theydon't, they don't take
children's clothes. So beforeCovid they used to take
everything in and we used tohave drivers that would go

(08:32):
around to all the charityshops, they'd put a shout out
for what they needed and itwould be delivered and then
Covid happened, all the shopswere closed, they weren't
plastered up. A critical oneand when they reopened we'd
lost that facility so now eachcharity shop will only take in
what they actually physicallycan sell on the shop floor.

(08:55):
And some of them are just toosmall to sell lots of
everything you'd imagine tofind in a department store.
They're generally smallfootprints. We don't,
you have to be careful withelectronics because they have
to be pat tested and that initself has a knock-on effect

(09:19):
which is why charity shopsdon't take clothing in that
needs repairing because wehaven't got the facility to
repair. So we haven't got ateam of sewers in the back
room who will put zips in andholds. Although if you have
got some clothes that needrepairing, I understand M&S
have recently launched arepair service, so again, like

(09:42):
you say, carole2. Researchinto local community services.
Absolutely, that's a reallygreat thing that they all put
off about. And there are somerepair shops that run once a
month. I think Sandbac hadone as well, but amongst those

(10:03):
repair cafe type setups, thereare sewers who will repair,
zip such things. So I thinkwe're kind of going back to
basics really, aren't we? Wedo really need to rethink our
waste in general, butspecifically textiles as
that's what we're talkingabout today. We need to
rethink how we're dealing withtextiles. Repairing is a

(10:26):
really great thing. So itmight well be that, you know,
rather than passing it on, youcan't repair it ourselves,
then you say that obviouslythere are those repair shops
that we might be able toutilize. We might be able to
utilize friends and family orobviously another thing that
we can do as well is if we'vegot something that is damaged,

(10:48):
we might use it maybe as a ragor something like that. You
know, it's rather than goingto the shop and buying Some
actual cleaning cloths usesomething that you already
have so it is just sort of Idon't want to use that term
thinking outside the box butit It is that really, isn't
it? And it's what you do withitems that aren't saleable. So

(11:09):
for example, when I finishwith my cotton pyjamas,
they're not saleable items.They've been worn to death. So
my husband cuts them up anduses them as oily rags in the
garage and he never has to buyany. He'll use them and use
them and wash them and reusethem and just keep going. They

(11:32):
just keep going, yeah. So it'sthinking what can this be used
for if it's no longer fit forthe purpose for which was
intended originally. Caroleand I know a lady that make
shirts that are stained, youknow, got dirty cuffs, collars

(11:53):
on, wash the shirt and makesshopping bags out of the body
of the shirt, handles out withthe sleeves and makes a
perfectly good shopping bag.Which you can keep washing and
reusing. And it's sustainable.It reduces use of plastic

(12:17):
carry bags. It's washable,reusable and biodegradable.
Absolutely. It's such animportant thing to do. And I
think probably, well, perhapsmany people listening will be
short on time. So I guessyou've got to pick the
solution that works well foryou. So some people might not
have time. To create a clothbag. But they could get onto

(12:43):
the Mores Bag website whichhas got hundreds of pods of
people who would make a MoresBag out of an old shirt. So
you don't need to do ityourself, you could do it that
way. Get onto moresbag.com,find a local pod and say do
you want some old shirts thatare no longer fit for purpose.

(13:04):
Do they cover useful as well?If they're stained and no
longer... You just work aroundthe marks, you just wash them
and then you just cut themout, avoiding those stains.
The ultimate is if it can berecycled, so if you've got an
old duvet set, but stillThe name of the meeting

(13:47):
That's great alternative isfinding craft groups. There's
lots of people who will gladlytake use. Perhaps your next
door neighbour is a decoratorand would be really pleased to
have a dust sheet. It's askingthose questions, isn't it? Ask

(14:08):
at your local care homebecause care homes are short
on recreational I alsosend fabric to textiles to
craft home for them to makewhatever out of them. That's
really good. That's somethingI haven't considered actually.

(14:31):
Schools take them as well.They're making bunting or
they're doing something orplays and things. We had that
situation not so long ago Youwere like, what on earth can I
do with an old shower curtain?And I was like, I'll have it
and made it into a sunset inthe garden. I know, it looked

(14:53):
amazing as well. I would havekept it, but we moved house
and we had a shower screen, sowe didn't need it anymore. And
I thought, well, it was quitenew as well. So I thought,
well, I don't want to, what amI going to do with it? And I
think, was it slightly rippedat the top? I can't remember.
Yeah, it wasn't picked forpurpose as a shower curtain,
but as a sun... It's beenbrilliant. And again, you

(15:19):
know, to cover furniture ifyou're decorating or perhaps
you want it to cover the driveif you're working on your car.
That's true. Just a win-win,isn't it? Yeah. That's the
thing, isn't it? I think aswell I'm sure many people
listening to this podcast arealready concerned about the
planet, they already careabout those outcomes and doing

(15:41):
the best for planet Earth butI suppose when we have got
something that we no longerneed it's just Thinking beyond
our own doorstep and thinkingwell okay once it's gone from
us once we don't have itanymore its journey hasn't
ended there there's stillsomething else that's going to
happen to it so if you'reputting clothes in your

(16:05):
cycling bin here in CheshireEast That's contamination. So
those clothes are not going toend up at a charity shop.
They're not going to end upbeing recycled because it
cannot be recycled in thatway. So if you do that, yes,
it's gone from your doorstep.You might even think you've
done the right thing, butunfortunately, in this case,

(16:26):
you haven't. So unless thatchanges sometime in the
future, you can recycle. Butcurrently in Chester East you
cannot put textiles in yourblack or silver bin? No, you
can put them in your black binbut obviously it'd be better
not to. Because it'd be betterif they go on and are sold in
a charity shop. The black binis not going for textile

(16:49):
recycling. If it goes intoyour black bin then it's going
to go to energy from waste,which is still a great thing.
However, wouldn't it be betterif that t-shirt that you no
longer want gets sold in acharity shop or gets made into
a moors bag or if it'scompletely kaput, it gets
transformed into a rag. It'sall about prolonging the life

(17:12):
and textiles and also yourbuying behaviours, trying to
buy environmentally friendlyfabrics, sustainable and then
of course we come to costwhich is always at the
forefront of everybody's mindsespecially if you're going on
holiday and you're takingyoung children and so on but

(17:34):
we've got too many easilydisposable options So it's
thinking about, you know, arethere things I can do when I'm
in a situation where I justneed to clothe my children for
a holiday abroad and thenthey're going to grow out of
things quickly is maybe find acharity shop that does
children's clothes. Becauseyou only need those clothes

(17:57):
for a week or so. Yeah, asmall percentage of the year
perhaps. Rather than buyingnew. It's changing
your buying behaviours whereyou can. Do you always need
buy new? That's what we did.We've just returned from a
holiday abroad. Our first oneactually is a family but

(18:18):
that's beside the point. Andsome of the swimwear that I
bought for my daughter, so thetop half, The name of the

(18:42):
Some things that I kind of useas kind of like a sarong type
thing, things that I alreadyhad in the house that I was
using for a different purpose.So it's kind of repurposing,
pre-loved, you know, we didbuy some things new, but I
tried to keep it as a muchsmaller percentage, you know,
so we can do these things.It's just a case of, You've

(19:02):
got to factor it in, you'vegot to allow yourself more
time if you're using a charityshop because it's not like to
a department store whereyou've got 50 different items
of the same type. So you'vegot to plan it in, but we can
do that. Just have a littlewander around on a Saturday
and sometimes it can be a realkind of treasure trove of If

(19:30):
you are time limited itdoesn't rule charity shops out
because you have got onlinecharity shops such as Oxfam
where you can shop onlinethrough a charity shop in the
same way that you can shop andbuy brand new. Obviously

(19:52):
charity shops cause brilliant,I would say on a personal
level, If you can choose acharity shop because then
you're kind of having like agreater win overall but you've
got other things like eBay,Etsy, what's that other one
that I can't think of? Vinted.All of those things you can
get pre-loved and you can justget some amazing options,

(20:13):
things that you wouldn't findanywhere else. You could end
up with, you know, if you wantto be the belle of the bull
and I'm not suggesting peopleshould want to do that, can
end up with something that'ssaying, people, where did you
get that from? Oh, well, I gotit pre-loved. Pre-loved
doesn't mean you're gettingsomething less. It very often
means you're getting somethingso much better than off the

(20:36):
shelf kind of fast fashion.It's also another alternative
if you do need to watch thepennies because you can,
rather than take your clothescharity, if you've got the
time and you want to raisesome holiday funds, you can So
your own clothes on thesestraps? You can do swaps,
clothing swaps with friends.There was one in a local

(20:58):
village this weekend whereeveryone who wanted take part
took their clothes. It was,you know, you swap babies from
normal charge, I don't know,you've got these things like
that. You take them tochildren and baby banks,
they're always crying out forclothes because children grow

(21:18):
so quickly so they don't getthe wear out of them and
there's generally nothingwrong with them when that
child's grown out of them.Sometimes they might not wear
them at all because you boughtthem and then by the time they
come to wear it they'vealready grown out of it. And
that's just reminded me,Carole, what you're saying
about the baby banks Also, ifyou do have stuff that's still

(21:38):
in wearable condition but youdon't feel it's good enough to
be sold in a charity shop,then you can look at things
like community clothes rails.So, you know, get onto social
media and see what can findthere. Also, there's something
in your community. Yeah,that's another thing. Find a

(21:59):
space, speak to people, startsomething. If you're keen and
you've got the capacity, thatis perfect. If you don't have
something local to you, oreven if you do, start another
one, it doesn't matter. Ifthere's lots of options for
people, that can only be agood thing. We

(22:21):
have a lot of people helpingthe communities with all these
different things and you canjust message them and they'll
point you in the rightdirection which people are
taking. You can do fantasticrepairing, following YouTube
clips where you're makingflowers. You know, you're
covering a hole with a flowerand your embroidery is very

(22:42):
clear. Step by step you cantake something and reinvent
it. Transfer it. Yeah, justwith some embroidery silks. Or
fabric paint. There's so manythings you can do with it.
Definitely, definitely.I really hope that people

(23:09):
listening will feel inspiredand I'm sure they will from
the things that we've talkedabout today that there are so
many options we're notactually limited at all really
I think in many cases we'reonly kind of limited by our
own The limits that we set forourselves, we don't think
there are those options therebecause we haven't looked and
we don't know. We allow timeto limit us. Yes, that's true,

(23:32):
that's true. But we do need togive time to prolong the life
textiles and asking, do wealways need buy new? When a
garment's been made, When thisfabric's been sourced, grown,
sourced, made, that's itscarbon footprint. So if you

(23:53):
then take that garment, thatfabric, and turn it into
something else, you're notadding to the carbon
footprint. Yes, whereas if youbuy new, it's more carbon
footprint. Because the cost ofproducing. Blown across the
world. Absolutely. So it'sjust thinking about... So,

(24:13):
yeah, if you are consciousabout your carbon footprint,
buying brand new is a muchbigger contributor to carbon
footprint. Absolutely,especially if you're someone
who perhaps you're in aposition to maybe purchase
quite a lot of textiles. Imean, imagine the impact there

(24:37):
if you're constantly buyingnew, so pre-loved is It
doesn't necessarily have to bepre-loved. Obviously, you've
got different types of moreethical textiles that were
grown in where countries are.They're looking at the carbon
footprint. So there are morekind of ethical solutions when
you are buying new, butsometimes there's a big price

(24:58):
tag attached to that, factthere usually is. Amazing.
I think we've probably coveredeverything that we said we
wanted to talk about today. Sothank you so much, Carole and
Alison, for your time. Verymuch appreciated. It's been so
interesting and I really hopethat everyone listening has
found it interesting too. Sothat brings us to a close.

(25:21):
Thank you so much forlistening and bye for now.