A Liverpool social business is looking to cut the amount clothes and materials that are going to waste. All profits made from the business are reinstalled back into the community to help create more events for weekly activities.
Everton-based Kitty’s Laundrette was inspired by Kitty Wilkinson, an Irish immigrant of Liverpool who is credited as the ‘pioneer of the wash house movement’ in the UK.
The laundrette has set up the ‘Textiles RRR’ (Reuse, Reduce and Recycle) project which has received £8000 from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority Community Fund 2022/23 to raise awareness of recycling old clothes and textiles. The project is in partnership with multiple different companies including several from athe Merseyside area.
A clothes swap will be held on Saturday November 19 from 1pm-7pm as part of their RRR programme. This will give members of the community the chance to give their once loved clothes a new home. This will also allow people to think about alternatives to ‘fast fashion’ which is damaging to the environment.
Any clothes that are in good condition are welcomed to be swapped however a maximum of five items can be donated.
The laundrette is asking people to drop any clothes off at the designated drop-off point before the event where they will be washed with eco detergents ready to be swapped. Everyone who has donated will be given a ‘swap token’ for each item donated.
As part of this campaign, the business will be hosting different, craft workshops and textiles mending events. Overall, there will be 52 activities for local people to learn new and different skills that will help them to repair and reuse their old materials.
According to a recent report by the Merseyside and Halton Waste Composition Analysis, an estimated 5% of households in the area binned different textiles including clothes and shoes.
By the end of March 2023, the laundrette hope to save around three tonnes of textiles from going to the waste sites.
Other events have been organised at the business. On October 29, a ‘Creepy Craft Night’ is being hosted from 5pm-8pm which will allow people to make a variety of different Halloween decorations, as well as this the monthly board game night will be conducted on November 8 from 6pm-8pm.
Click here for more information on forthcoming events.
Featured Image: Pexels by Ekaterina Belinskaya
