Recycle your old bras
Take your old bras into Oxfam. It’s been virtually impossible to resell underwear. Until now. That’s because Oxfam’s recycling plant in Huddersfield, Wastesavers, sees bras as “invaluable revenue-generating items.”
Bras are valuable because they are lightweight, meaning you get more in a kilo, which in turn means they fetch a higher price per kilo. And bras from the UK are particularly popular. “They are technically difficult to make and those from here are considered to be of superior quality in the developing world," says Tony Clark, General Manager at Wastesavers.
Wastesavers is where clothes that cannot be sold in shops end up, when the material is either recycled, if the item is damaged, or sold to traders who send them to developing countries.
(Please note that Oxfam is still in the process of notifying its 570 clothes shops, and the 1000s of volunteers who work in them, about Wastesaver. So you may find that your local Oxfam tells you it doesn’t accept bras. But they do. They just might not know it yet.)
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Kingston upon Thames, GB , 05 May 2009
Am so pleased about this – I have so many maternity and breastfeeding bras that I will soon be handing over to Oxfam, really glad they will be going to a good home ;)
London, GB , 06 Jun 2009
If only I’d seen this earlier. I finally convinced my girlfriend to clear out her drawers and cupboards, and boxes and bags of clothes and stuff a few weeks ago. Most we recycled at oxfam, but we didn’t think the bras would be accepted. I will pass this around my network now I know.
Cambridge, GB , 21 Aug 2009
I’ve always popped my bras in the charity bags not even giving it a second thought as actually a lot of the charity shops I visit do have a basket of bras for sale!
I will now donate them straight to my local Oxfam for good use.