Sustainable Clothes Swaps
Dacorum Borough Council is hosting three Sustainable Clothes Swaps between 10-12 October at The Forum so that people can exchange their unwanted items for something different – it’s like shopping, but free!
Clothes swapping is a great, easy way to update your wardrobe. It’s guilt-free shopping with no cost to you or the environment. Just bring along your good quality items you no longer wear and exchange them for something new-to-you!
The fashion industry is responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions. This means the clothes that we buy are contributing to climate change more than air and sea travel combined. Textiles production is also the world’s second largest industrial polluter after oil.
In the UK, we buy more clothes than any other country in Europe. The trend of ‘fast fashion’ has resulted in more than half of items bought being thrown away in less than a year. Around £140 million worth of clothes goes in our general waste bins in the UK every year – that’s around 350,000 tonnes!
Cllr Alan Anderson, Dacorum Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services says: ‘Clothes Swaps are an important way to fight ‘fast fashion’, which is creating an environmental crisis due to the amount of resources such as carbon, water, fuel and land that are required to make and transport new items. Every year, Hertfordshire residents throw over 7,000 tonnes of textiles into their rubbish bins, when they could have been reused, repaired or recycled. Clothes in landfill release methane, which is a harmful greenhouse gas. We want to encourage Dacorum’s residents to love their clothes and give them as much life as possible before ensuring they are recycled and not sent to landfill or incineration.’
On average 30% of what’s in our wardrobes hasn’t been worn for over a year. Clothes Swaps are a great opportunity to get rid of all those clothes cluttering up your wardrobe whilst treating yourself to a fresh look.
Dacorum held its first clothes swap last year and it was so popular residents asked for it to return, but with more chances to take part. So this year they are hosting three events covering an evening, day time and weekend to make sure that as many people can take part as possible.
Taking part is simple – during the drop off time bring along a maximum of ten unwanted, good quality clothes (adult sizes only) and earn one token per item.
During the swap time exchange your tokens for items which are new-to-you.
Location: First Floor (Conference Rooms 1 & 2), The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 1DN
- Thursday 10 October: Drop off: 5-6.30pm, Swap: 7-8.30pm
- Friday 11 October: Drop off: 10-11.30am, Swap: 12noon-1.30pm
- Saturday 12 October: Drop off: 9-10.30am, Swap: 11am-12.30pm
Swap Rules
- Maximum of ten items per person in adult sizes only.
- Items accepted: good quality clothes, shoes and bags.
- Items not accepted: bad quality items (dirty, ripped, torn, stained, broken zips, etc) jewellery, underwear, nightwear, swimwear or babies and children’s clothes.
- Bring your own reusable bags to take items home – carrier bags will not be provided.
Any items remaining by the end will be donated to a charity shop.
This event is for good quality, unwanted clothing only, if you have any unwearable clothing, this can either be repaired, or recycled in a textile bank.
So remember, second-hand doesn’t mean second-best! Come along to one of our clothes swaps and enjoy swapping not shopping.
For more information, please visit: www.dacorum.gov.uk/textiles.