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WARDRobe, the textile recycling division of Derbyshire based metal and waste recycling specialist, Ward, has been awarded a contract with Leicestershire Council Council for clothing banks at household waste recycling centres. 

During the autumn, WARDrobe won the tender to provide 72 textile reuse banks to 13 sites across Leicestershire to support the council in its ambitions to achieve zero to landfill. The banks are available to collect pre-loved clothing, bags and shoes from local residents. 

The textiles collected will be carefully sorted and then will find new homes both within the UK and abroad, helping the millions of people worldwide who are not able to buy new. This gives a new lease of life to unwanted clothing and a helping hand to those who need it.  

Clare Harby, General Manager at WARDRobe said:

“We are very excited about this partnership as it is located so close to our base warehouse, so we are working closely with our local communities. By putting a textile bank in a single car parking space at a local park or community hub it can raise money to fund public facilities such as benches or play equipment or other community amenities.

Each bank will be collected regularly with an amount paid to Leicestershire county Council for each kilo collected which will be reinvested into the local community. So when you choose the recycle your clothing through one of these banks you are supporting local community initiatives and putting the money bank into your local area, as well as helping people around the globe with new clothes.

We also have community banks on other sites across Leicestershire so we are really gaining a fantastic presence in the county all of which directly support local charities or organisations.”

The waste recycling centre sites in Leicestershire include Barwell, Shepshed, Loughborough, Coalville, Lount, Oadby, Mount Sorrel, Kibworth, Market Harborough, Somerby, Bottesford, Melton Mowbray and Lutterworth.

Ward hopes that its textile reuse banks will enable people to donate clean, dry and good quality clothing and are encouraging other councils to adopt a similar approach. It is important that clothing is not thrown away to landfill when so many people are desperate for items can be reused.

As a multi-award winning, independent fourth generation family business. An ISO accredited business, it provides safe, reliable and responsible handling of reusable items such as textiles and waste items including metals, wood, plastic, soils, aggregates, food, textiles, glass and mixed materials.