We're on a mission to encourage people to recycle and reuse items. That means encouraging people to put the right things in the right bins – or repair them where possible.
- Harrow residents urged to repair or recycle their textiles
- More than 20 recycling events held in Harrow to help Harrow recycle better
- Meet the team in upcoming recycling events
This year, we committed to hold 7 recycling events and 3 TRAID repair cafes. We’ve gone beyond that target. Since April, we have held more than 20 events across schools, community events, library drop ins and TRAID repair café events.
From contamination and repairing items, to food waste recycling and changing daily habits. These are some of the things are our recycling officers are raising awareness about to tackle unnecessary waste and encouraging people to recycle and reuse.
When it comes to your old clothes or textiles, it might seem easy to chuck them in your recycling. This is bad for the environment and contaminates a whole truck load of your dry recycled waste. It's also costly to the council to dispose of and can lead to increased council tax.
We have seen the amount of textiles placed in household waste bins falling dramatically and textile donations rise and residual waste is also decreasing. That is thanks to our partnership with TRAID who carry out free household textile collections.
Cllr Stephen Greek, Cabinet Member for Performance, Communications & Customer Experience, joined our most recent textile repair café with TRAID which took place at St Peter’s Church. He said:
"We want to help you recycle better. It's great for the environment and helps save money.
“We said we would hold 7 recycling events including 3 repair cafes with TRAID – and we have already exceeded that. I have attended repair workshops where you learn how to mend your clothes. I have also attended community events and school assemblies where our younger residents are taking the message home with them.
“Our officers are doing a fantastic job, over 50 tonnes of Co2 emissions have been saved so far in 2024 through TRAID’s textile collections.
“We’ll continue to put our residents first to help them do the right thing when it comes to recycling and reusing items.”
Residents wishing to donate unwanted clothes and shoes can book a free home clothing collection with TRAID, or recycle clothes at clothing banks, usually found in major food store car parks in Harrow.
Jose Baladron, TRAID recycling development manager said:
“At TRAID we are delighted to support London Borough of Harrow to reuse and recycle textiles through our home collection service and focus on repairing items. Thousands of items of clothing in good wearable condition are collected by us and transformed into high-quality stock for charity shops. The funds raised go to projects that improve conditions and working practices in the textile industry.”
For more information on recycling clothing and textiles in Harrow, or to book a home collection with TRAID visit Recycling clothing and textiles
Further details on our recycling and TRAID events will be available on our website and shared on social media.