A leading school trust, Outwood Grange Academies Trust, is launching a new campaign alongside uniform supplier, Trutex. The campaign between Outwood and Trutex sees the partnership between the two building on the success of the last academic year, which saw over 600,000 plastic bottles saved from landfill thanks to Outwood uniforms being made using fabric that has been manufactured from recycled drinks bottles. Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which consists of over 30 schools across the North of England, is hoping the campaign can help lower the cost of uniforms by making high-quality recycled uniforms available. Each Trutex blazer saves around 36 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill site and boys trousers, 19 bottles.
How Does This Campaign Work?
An aspect of the campaign includes each Outwood academy housing a recycle bin that will enable students and their families to donate items of school uniform that they no longer wear or need. These items will then be collected by Trutex to be repaired, if necessary, washed and made ready for purchase as pre-loved uniform items. By extending the life of clothing by just nine months can reduce carbon and water usage by up to 10%, while helping reduce the staggering amount of garments that are sent to landfill every year, a figure that currently stands at over 350,000 tonnes of clothing every year, according to Outwood.
Chief Operating Officer at Outwood, Katy Bradford said: “At Outwood, we take our responsibilities seriously and we are passionate about the environment and promoting the importance of sustainability across the Outwood Family.
“We believe this campaign, and its focus on recycling, can help not only deliver cost effective benefits for parents but also help spread the important message of sustainability and aid in improving our environment by reducing the amount of clothes in landfill.”
Benefits of this Campaign?
Clothing waste is detrimental to our environment, with 350,000 tonnes, that’s around £140 million worth of used but still wearable clothing going to landfills in the UK every year.
This equates to more than 30% of our unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill. This campaign can help reduce these numbers and create a more sustainable way of managing clothing waste.
CEO at Trutex, Matthew Easter said: “We’re excited to launch this uniform recycling initiative with Outwood to help offer cost effective uniforms for parents and also utilise the quality of our garments that are often grown out of before worn out.
“Our ethos is “Made to Last” uniform and by making the uniform last further than the first purchaser, we can significantly help reduce costs and create a more sustainably provision. As a carbon neutral business reducing carbon and water in production is important to us and also reducing the clothing that ends up in landfill.”
