It’s only waste, when you say it is

CDT X Yodomo partner to provide new tools to fight textile waste for the people of East London

Make it stand out.

In May 2024, Hackney Wick & Fish Island CDT & Yodomo secured a £5000 grant from Tower Hamlets Council to chart out every nook, cranny and pop-up that’ll take your old tees and trousers off your hands. That’s right – we mapped textile reuse and recycling spots across the borough, from charity shops to slick textile banks, all in the name of slashing carbon.

Mapping The Borough

The plan was simple: draw up a clear, user-friendly map of every place you can drop, donate or recycle textiles. Our project has a carbon-cutting target of six tonnes – roughly the same as driving a small car from London to Edinburgh three times.

“Beyond the nitty-gritty, this project is a neat example of local government funding a grassroots push for greener streets. No slick marketing campaign or buzzwords. Just £5000, a goal, and a map that could help the entire borough rethink what “old T-shirt” really means. If all goes to plan, Tower Hamlets will have a template for boosting circular fashion, and we’ll all have one less excuse to chuck our old threads in the bin.”