Zero Waste Week Day 3

Today’s Rubbish adventures have been thankfully very few. I am sure you are all almost as grateful as I am as it means not having to look at lots of pictures of my rubbish…

We had our Riverford delivery today, which is thankfully very low on packaging. Most things are unpackaged, or in cardboard punnets. Except the raspberries…
Whenever I forget to place my order in time, and have to do my fruit and veg shopping at the supermarket, I Am always reminded just how much rubbish is generated by the simple act of food shopping. And it depressed me.

I thought we might almost make it through the day without any landfill waste, but I was scuppered again.
I needed to alter something on the blackboard in the playground at school, so went in to ask for something to rub out the chalk pen with and was handed a special spray, and two disposable cleaning wipes-arrrrghhhh!

Anyway, Day 3 of Zero Waste Week is all about textile waste. 
I found this picture from The Story of Stuff Project on Facebook recently, and the stats are fairly shocking…

Personally, I really don’t get why anyone would throw clothes in the bin?
Depending on what condition they are in, there is ALWAYS something that can be done with them, rather than send them to landfill:

• Pass them on to someone else-this works really well with kids and baby clothes
• Send them to the Charity Shop
• Sell them on E-bay
• List them as a bundle, or separately, on your local Freegle group
• Have  a Swish! Either informally with a few friends, or organise one in your community-it’s super easy to do!
• Recycle them-some councils will take textiles in the kerbside recycling collections, or take them to the textile bin at your local recycling centre
• Arrange a textile collection at your local school or pre-school, and then get paid for the clothes! Organisations like Phil the Bag will come and collect your bagged up textiles, AND PAY YOU FOR IT!!
• Repair them! If your jeans are torn, have a go at patching them. If you don’t know how then see if you have a Repair Cafe near you, and take them along to see if someone can show you how
• Upcycle them in to something else
• Use old t-shirts, and dare I say it, even old pants, as dusters, to give them one more chance of a useful life before RECYCLING them-DON”T THROW THEM AWAY!

I thought I would do a quick trawl through the blog, for all the textile upcycling projects I’ve done, and amalgamate them all here-who knows, it might give you a teeny spot of inspiration to give it a go (although I know I am kind of preaching to the converted…)

1. I hacked an old long-sleeved top and added a lace trim to make a new top to wear in bed
2. Hubby had a large ink spot on his work trousers, so we dyed them to hide it!
3. I found a coat in a charity shop but didn’t like the buttons, so changed them-simples!
4. My trousers to bag upcycle
5. This one is from the very start of My Make Do and Mend Year, and again involved buttons. And scissors…
6. A variation on the bag from trousers theme
7. I had a grease spot on a top that I couldn’t get rid of, so I took to the neckline with my scissors!
8. T-shirts are super easy to upcycle-this one ended up as a bag
9. This skirt made from an old pair of jeans is one of my fave items in my wardrobe
10. Another t-shirt upcycle-this time into shorts
11. And if your t-shirts really are beyond salvaging-make them into Tarn (t-shirt yarn) and use them for crochet or knitting
12. My woolly jumper to cardi upcycle
13. Another t-shirt upcycle-again with buttons!

So really, there is NO excuse for clothes ending up in landfill. You have been told!