To ask you to donate, not bin, unwanted school uniform?

[CactusFlowers]

I’m sure most of us (me included) have a pile of stuff to sort through now the holidays have arrived. If you have any unwanted uniform please consider donating it to your local uniform bank to help families in need.

They’ll usually also accept shoes, school bags, lunch boxes etc.

If you’re in need please also contact them to ask for help.

if you can’t find your local bank you could post here and we could help you find it.

[Title edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

Oh, and coats. They always want coat for all seasons.

My dcs school has a preloved schoolwear initiative so it takes donated clothing

We give all of ours to school where the PTA sell it for £1 per item.

We've just found loads that are still brand new and too small. Local hotel has just taken in a lot of Ukrainian families so we've handed them in to them.

I volunteer in our school, on the last week there was roughly a biffa bin worth of uniform in lost property. no one seems to bother?

Important to get the thread title right in these circumstances, I feel.

Hopefully most schools have a second hand uniform system and most parents will be aware of it. And if not they will donate to the charity shop geographically closest to the school.

Surely only a tiny minority of people would actually put used clothing in the landfill bin? Surely?

Even if it's too worn to be handed down, cloth can be recycled.

Everyone know this! Yes?

@A580Hojas lots of clothing goes to landfill, unfortunately.

Nobody wants it though. Often just burdening the school with your old trash.
What are you supposed to do with it if its all faded and minging?

Not everyone has a uniform bank we have a pta but of course the school is closed now

People need to get out of the everything "must be new" for September mentality my children will still be wearing last years stuff if it fits ds needs a new blazer shoes will be checked August his shirts are fairly new and should still fit ditto the trousers ds2 might need new tops

The amount of people I see buying new every September is astonishing

I’m an idiot. I’ve reported myself to get it amended.

If too worn for the school, charity shops usually sell textiles for recycling, or you can send to the textile bank.

Just don't landfill!

We also always buy things a bit big to get two years' wear before replacing.

I hadn't heard of uniform banks - interesting, thank you. Most people I know donate to the school secondhand uniform sale or to a charity shop close to the school, and where this is possible I think it works well. People feel pleased they've got a bargain. Can see how having a one-stop uniform bank could help struggling families though.

My DD's primary school have a clothes rail and a desk of uniform, coats, shoes etc in the main office that you can go in and help your self too if needed. I think it's brilliant and helps people not feel so embarrassed to ask for help

I voted YABU just because surely everyone donates old uniform? Maybe bin if totally ragged or unusable. But FB, school, charity shops and clothing bins must get used more than the bin if it is still ok?

I was really irritated that lots of secondary DD’s PE kit couldn’t be passed on as the school wanted it embroidered with initials and it was done so well (by machinery shop used) I couldn’t see any way of unpicking it.

This isn’t dumping it on the school. It is donating it to a local charity to specifically sort and distribute.

If it’s in wearable condition they’ll take it. A bit faded isn’t a reason to bin it. Obviously stained and minging they won’t want it. However some charities will take unwearable clothing to sell for rags.

I give mine to school as they have a shop open twice a day selling 2nd hand uniform for 50p an item. It's great!

I help run a school uniform shop (2nd hand) & it is almost impossible to get anyone to accept unusable school uniforms.

No one will take them. Very occasionally a charity shop will accept them for rag but we had a room (size of a standard bathrooM) FULL - floor to ceiling of unusable stock.

i think uniforms need to be less logos etc so they can be recycled and reused more easily. DC school logos EVERY single item and is constantly in the midst of phasing stuff out so we never have a full current kit.

That said, I love 2nd hand uniform. Haven’t needed to buy anything new in almost 7yrs.

Oh and just a note any child that needs something will be given it for free during the school day. I found this out when I sent my DD to school in a Summer dress on a lovely sunny morning. It ended up snowing that day (😳) so they gave DD an extra cardigan to wear and put a spare in her bag too!

Thanks for this. I have a bag of very little worn secondary school uniform. Couldn’t bring myself to throw it out and was hoping to encounter someone who could use it. DD is now 20! Also discovered that our local uniform bank collects children’s coats so a good destination for all the school coats I bought in vain for her to wear.

Nope, according to this 10,000 items of clothing are binned every five minutes. www.keepbritaintidy.org/news/waste-less-live-more-slow-down-fast-fashion

So I help to run a free clothing exchange for children. It isn’t specifically for people in need, anybody can come along. We see in excess of a hundred families a month at our exchanges and put together bundles to deliver to families who can’t make it to the exchanges.

The clothes that are unwearable we pass on to the food bank bagged up, they sell them on in bulk for rags. Don’t just put it in your household waste! Bag it up as rags to save it being sorted and I’m sure your local charity shop will accept them!

Ours will go into recycling at the nearest tip. It’s been through 3 kids so it’s time it went.

I did give loads to the school once, it had labels still on it, someone then dumped it in lost property and at the end of the school year we got it all back again!!

I'm pretty sure I read recently that most of the clothing charity shops can't sell actually end up dumped in Africa so maybe better in the bin.

All our uniform gets given away or to the second hand shop at school. My last child leave school next year so I will hand it all in when he is done. I can't believe people throw away clothes that are reusable!

Is there any central list of uniform banks?