Salvation Army volunteers and helpers collected clothing discarded by participants of April’s London Marathon, prior to the start line, with the aim of recycling, reselling, reusing the items.
The clothing was transported to the charity’s processing centre in the East Midlands for sorting and distribution. Any profits will be donated to The Salvation Army.
The partnership with the the Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL) is one of London Marathon Events’ new sustainability initiatives for 2024. These are aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its events, with a particular focus on lowering carbon emissions, cutting waste and improving circularity.
Kate Chapman, head of sustainability for London Marathon Events, said: “The Salvation Army did an absolutely fantastic job at this year’s TCS London Marathon collecting a record 18.9 tonnes of clothing from the Start.
“They were organised and with their enthusiastic team of helpers ensured that all the unwanted clothing from participants was collected quickly. We are looking forward to working with SATCoL on many of our future events.”
Last summer, SATCol unveiled plans for a world-first commercial-scale polyester recycling system to help further reduce textile waste.
Project Re:claim, a joint venture between corporate wear specialists Project Plan B and SATCoL, successfully recycled polyester textiles back into raw material using new technology on a commercial scale.
Project Plan B developed the exclusive polyester recycling system which is based on plastic bottle recycling. SATCoL installed the machine at their processing centre in Kettering, Northamptonshire, which already sorts and processes around 65,000 tonnes of donated textiles every year.
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