Do you love clothes but hate waste?

Kayleigh Boasman in her £5 maternity dress
Kayleigh Boasman in her £5 maternity dress.

Check out a new campaign to reduce the amount of wasted clothes, and a competition for children.

A new campaign is encouraging South Yorkshire residents to reduce the amount of clothes being wasted by loving the clothes they already own.

A staggering £140 million worth of used but still wearable clothing ends up in landfill every year in the UK. And around £30 billion worth of unworn clothing sits in UK wardrobes – most still have the tags on!

So instead of buying new, why not go on a shopping expedition in your own wardrobe and rediscover what’s already there? Take any unwanted clothes to charity shops, and while you're there check out the fashion finds and buy second hand.

Clothing is the latest target in a Re-use Revolution campaign by the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership and Renewi, the firm behind the award-winning waste treatment facility at Manvers.

Social media will feature blogs and a huge bank of resources on how to get the most out of your clothes including care and repair guides, upcycling and refashioning tips and video tutorials for beginners and experts.

Follow along by searching #LoveYourClothesSY where you'll find a competition to get children involved. A scary 40 per cent of Halloween costumes are worn once and then thrown away. Under 18s living in Barnsley, Doncaster or Rotherham can take part in the competition to design and maybe make their own costumes this year using clothes they already own.

Prizes worth up to £100 are up for grabs and will include sewing kits, crafts and educational materials. More details and an entry form to download are on the Waste Less South Yorkshire website. The competition closes on 2 November.

Community Education Liaison Officer Abi Reid, who is based at Manvers said the fashion industry was responsible for 10 per cent of annual global carbon emissions – more than all flights and shipping combined.

“Our clothes impact climate change as they require a lot of resources – energy and water – to grow materials, make them, transport them and dispose of them. For instance, it takes 2,700 litres of water to make just one cotton t-shirt and over 6,000 litres to grow the cotton needed to make one pair of jeans.

“The average lifetime of a garment in the UK is about 3.3 years but extending the life of clothing by just nine months can cause a significant reduction in its environmental impact.”

Service support manager at Barnsley Council's waste department, Kayleigh Boasman, is determined to practise what she preaches. “I'm 26 weeks pregnant and this maternity dress is second hand. New maternity clothes are so expensive but this cost me £5 from Facebook Marketplace and had only been worn once by the previous owner,” she said.

Re-use Revolution has already tackled plastic bottles, cutlery, straws and carrier bags, tea bags and coffee pods, hot drink cups, beauty and nappies. More information about these and the latest campaign is at www.wasteless-sy.co.uk

Published: 8th October 2021