It’s that time of year again, when parents and carers across the country scramble to get the uniform ready for the return to school. But these items can be expensive and bad for the planet. With help from our Megawatt Community Energy Fund, one charity in Bristol is trying to change that.
“To kit out a kid for a new school can cost £200 for essentials” Jenny Foster, co-director of Global Goals Centre and Sparks Bristol, said. “Not only that but the uniforms are not made to last these days. Now they don’t last more than a year. In some schools you’re not allowed to have generic clothes, you have to have the branded items so that adds to the cost as well.”
Old uniforms can be really bad for the planet. According to research from Business Waste UK, around 4 million uniforms are thrown away each year in the country. The average school, with around 1,000 students, will produce 2-3 tonnes of uniform waste annually. Many of these are plastic-based fabrics so they don’t decompose.
The charity’s Better Uniforms Campaign, which launches this September, hopes to address that partly by hosting tailored workshops in schools across the city. Each workshop will be different according to the school, one might want help setting up a second-hand uniform shop run by sixth form students for example, while others might focus on upcycling.
In addition to this, six schools have taken part in focus groups, where students, parents and staff’s ideas will feed into a Better Uniform Charter which could be rolled out to all schools.
“We want to work with schools to make uniforms less stressful for everyone,” she said.
Global Goals Centre is based at Sparks Bristol, the former department store transformed into a hugely popular community hub. There are plans to hold second hand uniform pop-ups in the space, so if you’d like to have a look, keep an eye on their website for more information.
The workshops are supported by a grant from this year’s Megawatt Community Energy Fund, which BEC runs annually with fellow community energy group Low Carbon Gordano. The grant supports projects which focus on reducing carbon emissions through a variety of different activities, including sustainable transport, food waste, fashion and education. You can read more about the grant here.
