A Huddersfield school is having uniform giveaway days for Uniform Exchange … and the hope is other schools across Kirklees will do the same.
Moorlands Primary School at Mount near Outlane has had a lot of used school uniform donated by Huddersfield charity Uniform Exchange so decided to hold their own pop-up events to give it away.
Parents and pupils can help themselves to whatever they want and some parents also bring in used uniform that no longer fits to give away too.
Uniform Exchange was originally set up a decade ago to provide parents struggling to afford school uniform with items donated by other parents but it now encourages all parents to reuse old uniform before buying new wherever possible.
Surprisingly, a lot of plastic is used to make school uniform which makes it a major polluter so anyone who wears reused school uniform is helping to save the planet.
Ros Farrell from Uniform Exchange says: “It takes 200 years for a school jumper to decompose in landfill and there are the equivalent of 36 plastic bottles in each full set of school uniform …. 18 in blazers alone and five in a pair of trousers.
“That’s why we’d love to see zero school uniform being thrown away in Kirklees and there’s no excuse for that when Uniform Exchange has dozens of collection points across the area.”
The pop-up giveaways at Moorlands are organised by the school council run by pupils representing each year group as they are so concerned about rubbish needlessly being thrown into landfill.
Assistant headteacher Hannah Woodhouse said: “Uniform Exchange is such an excellent charity. We know that all the school uniform we receive from them is checked for quality and everything is in really good condition.
“The school council really wants to set up the giveaways because they are so passionate about doing all they can to save the environment from harm and needless pollution.”
The school has held three pop-up giveaways so far this year and will organise more to meet demand from parents.
Uniform Exchange founder Kate France said: “It’s fantastic that Moorlands is holding these events and it would be wonderful if other schools right across Kirklees could do the same. We can provide them with uniform to give away and if other parents bring in unwanted uniform to donate that would be a great way to make it sustainable and help to keep all uniform out of landfill.
“Children show an incredible awareness about environmental issues so now it should be a case of second-hand uniform being the first choice for all parents. It saves them money and saves the planet, a classic win-win for everyone.”
Contact Uniform Exchange by phoning 07955 724789 or emailing info@uniform-exchange.org