Charity upcycling clothes to combat waste from shops

A hospice has teamed up with craftspeople to reduce the amount of unsaleable charity shop clothing ending up as waste.

Dorothy House Hospice Care - based in Wiltshire and Somerset - has launched Threads for Care, which sees local makers, creatives and stylists upcycle clothes that would usually go to landfill.

The new clothing, or items like tote bags, will be sold in three of the charity shops.

Head of retail at Dorothy House, Rowena Rees, said: "We've got lots of local makers and creators and we thought 'how can we partner with those to salvage some of the waste material and create something new', so it adds a different lens to what we do in the retail space and engages with our community."

The charity has 29 shops, which it said generated £5.8m in 2024, which is £2m more than it got in government funding that year.

But it said while its shops are a major source of income, only 29% of donations per bag are actually saleable, and it costs the charity £70,000 to dispose of the waste clothing properly.

It follows a BBC investigation that spoke to 50 charity shops across the West Country, with staff in almost all saying they felt their shops were being used as a bin.

Ms Rees said: "We are very well supported by our local community but people are donating less and less good quality [items].

"We're seeing a decline in the quality of donations and seeing people using other platforms to drive income into their households.

"So we have this waste we just cannot sell."

In an aim to reduce the soaring waste costs the charity has decided to team up with local makers to improve sustainability.

Amy Laws runs There's Only One and is a screen printer and applique artist, who re-works clothes with her skills.

She said the project "combines everything that's important to me".

"It's keeping clothing out of landfill sites, encouraging more people to shop second hand and support their local charity shop, and then also raising funds for a charity that's such an important part of the community," she added.

Sharon Goold, from Eco Bunting, has been making bags out of the charity's unsold clothing and fabric and said she will be expanding her range into clothing.

She will use anything ranging from paper and books, all the way through to fabrics, tents and lifejackets.

"Anything that can be cut and sewn, I make into something," she said.

Ms Goold hopes to "reform" clothes into garments "slightly more trendy and quirky", which means each one will be unique.

The re-worked garments will be sold in Dorothy House's shops in Trowbridge, Bath, and the Frome Clothes and Ubiety lifestyle stores from 15 September.

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