Every April there is a week long campaign called Fashion Revolution, with the objective of changing the way people buy, use and discard of clothing.
Fashion has a huge impact on the environment, from the growing or extraction of raw materials like cotton or oil to make synthetic fibres, to production and dying of yarns, weaving of fabrics, manufacturing of garments right through to how we wash them, whether we mend them and how we eventually dispose of them.
School uniform is a part of the clothing industry and so has similar impacts as other fashion garments. This is a big motivator for ApparelXchange, we want to provide an alternative way of using school uniforms and having positive environmental impacts. By providing services to schools and access to quality pre-worn uniforms we hope to let communities across Glasgow have alternative choices to buying new.
Since we started operations in March (2018), only 5 months ago we have already saved nearly 6 CO2eqt. This is equivalent to saving energy to make 113,208 cups of tea or taking 3 cars off the road in the UK for a year or 4 return flights from Edinburgh to New York. Incredible achievement from all the schools we are working with.
The work doesn’t stop there, we are providing session in schools about the impacts of clothing on the environment and society. In June, Shawlands Primary P6 class were the first to have a session and to ask the question “Who made our clothes?” to raise awareness of these impacts. A dedicated group of young people who understand complex supply chains.
If you are a parent, teacher or interested in what we are doing please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Izzie