What happens to your donated clothing at Oxfam Lincoln

Our Big Bra display

You might have noticed, last month in Oxfam Lincoln, we had bras all over the place. This was in aid of The Big Bra Hunt, our campaign to get you to give us your bras, so we can use them to help fight poverty and suffering all over the world. Why bras? Well keep reading and we'll get to that, because you see this was about the entire clothing chain in Oxfam, and that starts with your donations:

Every day our customers bring us donations into the shop. But did you know there are several other ways to give us your clothes?

Our shop in Lincoln is served by three donation banks in the local area. There's one in Washingborough, Welton, and the Sainsbury's carpark on Tritton Road. You can see a map of their locations on the Oxfam website.

Our bra bin in Sainsbury's

For the Big Bra Hunt Sainsbury's were also very nice and let us have a second donation bin right inside the shop, just for collecting bras.

We also work closely with Marks and Spencer; you might have heard recently about the new swhopping scheme, which means you can now donate clothing to Oxfam when you go shopping in Marks and Spencer. Or if you bring Marks and Spencer clothing to us in the shop, we'll give you an M&S voucher!

However you donate, don't forget to consider gift aiding your donation, which lets us get 25% more for every item sold! Ask one of volunteers about signing up next time you pop in.

Two of our volunteers sorting donations

Once we have received donations our volunteers get to work. The first stage in the Oxfam clothing chain is shops like ours in Lincoln. We sort through the donations and pick out clothing which we can sell in the shop. You might also be surprised to know that above our shop in Lincoln we have another area where our volunteers sort through clothing, and other goods, to list on Oxfam's Online Shop.

We get a lot of stuff donated, and not all of it is in a good enough condition to sell. But that's absolutely fine because we can still do good with it at Oxfam!

Every week the clothing we can't sell is collected from the shop and sent to Oxfam's clothing sorting centre, Wastesaver. There the clothing is sorted again, so if we missed something good in the shop it will get picked out to be sold online, or at one of Oxfam's festival shops. We also sell to designers in the UK to restyle old clothing, and other waste fabrics are sold on for recycling. At every stage Oxfam is using your donations to help us raise money for our work around the world.

About 15% of donated clothing is picked out to be sent to our social enterprise project in Senegal called Frip Ethique. There Oxfam employs local people to sort the clothing we send, and it is then sold onto to local business people for them to sell. This provides local employment and helps develop local trade.

It's at Frip Ethique where your donated bras really shine, as they are worth much more than other items of clothing, because they are hard to make. Here's a little video showing what the people at Frip Ethique do with your donated clothing:



The Big Bra Hunt has come to an end now, but we still want your bras, along with all other clothing, books, music, homeware, toys, games and more. So why not have a clear out and bring your unwanted stuff to us at Oxfam, or pop it along to one of our donations banks. You can be sure we'll do everything we can, at our shop, and beyond, to make as much as possible from it to help relieve poverty and suffering all around the world.

One of our textile banks