Our story
Waste in the production of school uniforms is vast! There is waste and adverse environmental impacts from every stage of the complex manufacturing process that uses an extraordinary amount of electricity and water. Then after all this, the child grows and a perfectly good uniform could go to waste - often landfill - just because it doesn't fit that particular child any more. But what if there was a better way?
Before tackling this issue, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council carried out research, initially with local groups and organisations who were already providing this valuable service, to identify needs and best practices.
Local community organisations were invited to engage with councillors and take a strategic lead in terms of supporting and promoting local schemes. Relations were built between the different schemes which enabled the sharing of uniforms across schools.
Some of the challenges faced included the lack of storage, as many community organisations are already using their main halls for daily activities. In addition to this, despite the emphasis on recycling and environmental benefits, there remains a stigma around "free uniforms". This challenge was successfully addressed by one lead partner who introduced a Uniform Sale, charging small amounts for items eg. £2 per item such as shirts and trousers and £5 for blazers. This proved to be a great success with significant numbers of people attending the sale, raising a total of £1400.
Similarly, some re-used uniforms were sold for a small cost in shops, which proved another successful approach. The monies raised went back into supporting local families either through food banks or directly into the school uniform re-use scheme. The feedback was positive with people feeling more comfortable contributing to the costs and giving back. This will be further explored next year to help reduce stigma around reused clothing.
Other unexpected positive outcome was the large volume of items donated. This allowed us to take a wider Northern Ireland based approach, as it was identified that there was a need for unmarked, plain good quality uniform items to be provided to refugee schemes in Belfast in particular. In our first year, we were able to donate over 1000 items to the refugee scheme.
Additionally some of the "mum and tot" schemes involved in the school uniform re-use project have started their own clothes "swap shop" events.
The pilot scheme saw over 2200 good quality school uniform items from over 65 schools donated into schemes. The following year, we were able to increase from 7 school uniform re-use schemes to 11 schemes covering the whole of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area, and the number of School Uniform items donated increased significantly to over 5000 items from over 70 schools.
Our advice
School uniforms can last a very long time if cared for and laundered using eco-friendly products rather than harsh chemicals and optical brighteners which can fade and strip away the colour and wear them out before their time. If you have a child who has grown out of their uniform, or no longer needs it why not do your bit for the environment and pass on your old uniform, and go to a community school uniform swap to find a new one?
Any family can avail of the scheme. The scheme was NOT means tested. This means that you don't need to "qualify" or provide proof of income. In fact, you are contributing to recycling by using the scheme. If a scheme is over-stocked (which is often the case) these uniforms may go to waste. It is much better that these items are collected and re-used by families.
Whatever uniforms are donated by people living in your area are available for re-use! This should cover all common schools in your area and potentially other less common ones. If your child needs a different, less common uniform for your area, then one of the other exchanges will be almost certain to have items.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the number of people and community organisations participating in, and supported by, the school uniform re-use scheme; the number of school uniforms donated and collected; the carbon savings from re-use instead of landfill; and the contribution of this scheme to the bigger circular economy in the Borough.
