This is how school uniforms will be recycled at two Worksop schools

Staff at Outwood Academy Portland and Outwood Academy Valley are asking families to donate uniform as part of the campaign alongside uniform supplier, Trutex.

Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which runs the schools, is hoping the campaign can help lower the cost of uniforms by making high-quality recycled uniforms available.

Each Outwood academy will house 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.

Extending the life of clothing by just nine months can reduce carbon and water usage by up to 10 per cent and help reduce the amount of garments that are sent to landfill every year.

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.”

The campaign builds on the success of the last academic year, which saw more than 600,000 plastic bottles saved from landfill thanks to Outwood uniforms being made using fabric that has been manufactured from recycled drinks bottles.

Each Trutex blazer saves around 36 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill site and boys trousers, 19 bottles.

Trutex chief executive, Matthew Easter, said: “We’re excited to launch this uniform recycling initiative with Outwood to help offer cost effective uniform 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.”

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