Brixton’s TRAID on Acre Lane is part of a UK-wide charity tackling environmental and social problems caused by the production, consumption and disposal of clothes.
Now TRAID has launched a London-wide “23 per cent” campaign to encourage us to reduce our clothing footprint.
Research for the charity found that in Lambeth:
- 23% throw clothes in the bin
- 15% buy clothes at least monthly
- 54% said that clothes not fitting is their reason for throwing them away
Huge amounts of energy and water go into the production of clothes that end up in landfill.
It takes 2,700 litres of water to make a T-shirt. The 23 per cent of unworn clothes is the energy equivalent of powering 50,000 homes for a year.
TRAID keeps clothes in use for longer by making it easier to recycle them, including free home collections, recycling banks and shops.
Funds raised by TRAID go to global projects benefiting the people and places making our clothes – from supporting cotton farmers to grow an organic crop to supporting retailers eliminate child labour in supply chains.
“The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the huge volume of clothes not being worn, and to ask people to take action by passing their clothes on to TRAID,” says Andrea Speranza, campaign manager at TRAID.
“By doing so, they will be supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 to ensure more sustainable consumption and production.
“Cheap fast fashion is powering rising consumption and production, placing unsustainable demands on finite resources to produce clothes which are poorly made, barely worn and quickly replaced.
“From carbon emissions and use of water in the production of clothes, through to landfill and incineration when clothes are thrown away, the fashion industry can have a devastating environmental impact.”
TRAID Brixton, 2 Acre Lane, SW2 5SG. Opening times: 10am-6pm Monday to Saturday, 11am-5pm Sunday. 020 7326 4330
You can book a free collection at bit.ly/Traid-collect
