A CHARITY has opened its first-ever upcycling hub to transform unsaleable clothing - and it’s here in Bradford . Barnardo’s officially launched the sustainability project at the children’s charity’s superstore in the Forster Square Retail Park this week. The Re-Fashion Hub will focus on the upcycling and reuse of donated clothes and textiles that are damaged, too worn, or deemed unsuitable for sale.
The Re-Fashion Hub (Image: Telegraph & Argus) India Reed checks donated stock not suitable to go out onto the shopfloor (Image: Telegraph & Argus) These items would normally be sent to recycling merchants. But a team of volunteers at the new hub will now be able to give the donations a new lease of life - either as the same product with repairs or redesigned into totally different items - thanks to the donation of six sewing machines by Singer. Volunteers discuss the ideas for the items (Image: Telegraph & Argus) A volunteer sewing (Image: Telegraph & Argus) One example of turning clothes into other products is creating handbags from jeans, and even if clothes are “too damaged” the new hub will help stop the materials being sent away.
A spokesperson for Barnardo’s said: “Anything too damaged can be used in a different way – shredded for a dog bed, or stuff like that.” The hub has also had a commercial washing machine donated, provided by Miele, to aid its efforts. It means the hub has been created on a zero budget to date.
Sonja Green (left), Head of Sustainabi.