Fourfields Community Primary School rewarded for clothes recycling efforts

Fourfields Community Primary School in Yaxley has been rewarded with £200 in return for the efforts of pupils, their families and staff who have been collecting clothes, shoes and household textiles via the Recycle With Michael scheme.

Fourfields Community Primary School teamed up with Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) to take part in the dedicated scheme for schools in June 2014. The colourful Recycle With Michael clothing bank is located in the school car park and to date, the school has collected 1,033kg of clothes, shoes and textiles for re-use. As well as raising money for The Salvation Army, the school has also been rewarded with £200 to put towards their school garden.

School Business Manager, Sue Mulley, commented: “We’d like to thank all the children and their families for their generous donations. We are delighted to be working with SATCoL to highlight to pupils the importance of caring for the environment and stopping textiles being sent to landfill. At the same time we’re raising money to help The Salvation Army continue its valuable social welfare work and raising funds to help us sustain our school garden. The garden gives our pupils an opportunity to grow a variety of plants, including fruit and vegetables, which our cook is able to use in school lunches. We are very lucky to have a supportive set of parents who have been fantastic, dropping off bags of clothes on their way to school.”

SATCoL Area Representative, Tom Richardson, said: “It’s great to see staff, pupils and their families really embracing our Recycle With Michael scheme. By donating good quality clothes and shoes to us, everyone at Fourfields is helping to extend the life of these items, making sure they are re-used rather than going to landfill. We hope the clothing bank will continue to thrive, providing the school with a way to support The Salvation Army while raising funds for their school garden.”

Designed to increase awareness of textile re-use and recycling from an early age, all schools that participate in the Recycle With Michael scheme are provided with their own clothing bank branded with the fun recycling champion, Michael. Each month SATCoL collectors pick up the donations and the school is rewarded with an amount of money to spend on its own projects, dependent on the weight of donations. Around 400 schools across the UK currently participate in the scheme.

Profit from the sale of donated clothing contributes to the valuable social welfare work of The Salvation Army, including homelessness and addiction services, care for older people, help at emergency incidents, support for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales, a Family Tracing Service and much, much more.

For more information about SATCoL and the Recycle With Michael scheme, visit: www.salvationarmytrading.org