We should all be making an effort to recycle, especially our textiles – an estimated one billion items of clothing are sent to landfill every year, and the vast majority of them could be re-purposed and put to good use.

There are several stores that will recycle your clothes for free and some will even reward you with vouchers or loyalty points when you donate!

In Bristol Shopping Quarter, you can also recycle your shoes, your glasses, even your used light bulbs! And don’t forget you can donate good-condition items to the charity shops in Broadmead – British Heart Foundation, St Peter’s Hospice, and YMCA Charity Shop.

Please see below what you could do with the items you discard:

Recycle your clothes

Beyond Retro
Recycle and refresh your wardrobe at Beyond Retro on Broadmead.

1. Clear out your closet. Launder the items you wish to sell to them.
2. Take your items to the store.
3. The team will look through your pieces and let you know what they’ll take.
4. You’ll receive up to 20% of the selling price as a Beyond Retro gift card to spend in store.

Important – all pieces must be laundered before taking them in. Please ensure all pieces are in excellent condition. They will not accept damaged or stained items.
If there’s anything they don’t take, they can recycle for you with Love not Landfill.

CLOTHINGXCHANGE
At CLOTHINGXCHANGE they buy pre-loved high-end and designer pieces and sell them on to those looking for a more sustainable wardrobe refresh.

It’s not just any thrift store: they lovingly select their pieces and focus on known brands, helping to develop a more sustainable circular economy in one of the world’s most polluting industries. Our old clothes often end up in landfill when they could be loved again in someone else’s wardrobe, which is why CLOTHINGXCHANGE believe good quality clothing deserves a new lease of life.

If you have old high-end or designer pieces you’re ready to part ways with, you can take them down to CLOTHING XCHANGE in exchange for 50% of the resell price in trade credit to use in store or 25% of the resell price in cash. And if you don’t have anything to resell but love style and sustainability, they have over 5,000 top-quality high-end pieces waiting for a good new home.

You can buy and sell men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories.

Booking an appointment is required to sell or trade with CLOTHINGXCHANGE. Sorting through and valuing items takes time, so keep in mind that this process might take them an hour or more and plan accordingly. Since they are able to offer more for your items with a trade credit, you might want to look around and find something in the store that you would love to take home. Most of their sellers prefer to take trade credit than cash.

Book your appointment on their website.

Cotswold Outdoor
Give your unwanted gear a new lease of life at Cotswold Outdoor on Union Street where you can drop off jackets, fleeces, trousers, base layers, other clothing, paired shoes and boots, accessories (hats, gloves, belts etc.), as well as home textiles and items that are ripped, have holes or permanent stains. Please note, all returned garments must be clean and dry.
They cannot take sleeping bags, tents, rucksacks, rags, ski boots, ice skates, blankets or pillows. More information cotswoldoutdoor.com/recycle-my-gear.

Cotswold Outdoor also offer a Repair and Care service to ensure that down/synthetic sleeping bags & jackets for washing, shell jackets, insulated jackets last longer. Ask in store for further information or read their guide at repair-and-care.

Harvey Nichols
Resell your Harvey Nichols pieces, in partnership with Reflaunt. Fill in the online form, drop-off your clothes at your Bristol store, they’ll photograph and sell them for you, receive cash or a voucher. More information on their website.

H&M
Each time you make a donation of unwanted clothing at H&M Cabot Circus, you can claim a voucher to spend against your next purchase. This also applies at Monki in Cabot Circus.
For further information, click close-the-loop and circularity/recycle

NCP
You can donate textiles at bins located at NCP Queen Charlotte Street, NCP Nelson Street, and NCP St James Barton – they will be recycled via the St Peter’s Hospice charity.

Primark
Primark customers can recycle any brand of pre-loved clothes, textiles, footwear, bags, towels, bedsheets and pyjamas at its Broadmead store as part of a new recycling scheme.
Known as the Primark In-Store Recycling Scheme, collection boxes are available in 190 stores across the UK.
All donated items will be reused, recycled or repurposed, with nothing going to landfill, and profits from the scheme will go to UNICEF to support of its education programmes for vulnerable children around the world.

Route One
You’ll find a clothes swap rail at Route One on The Horsefair – take something in to swap and they’ll give you a voucher to exchange for something else on the rail.
If you’ve got an old, broken, or battered board, bring it in and they’ll give it a happy retirement! They’ll even give you £5 towards your new deck to say thanks for choosing to recycle. Just ask for a Deckcycle discount when you recycle a board at your local store.

Superdry X Oxfam – Clothes Give Back Box
Refresh, Recycle and Reinvigorate your preloved clothes with Superdry and receive £5 off your next shop! The store has been twinned with its local Oxfam shop, who will collect all items donated to be resold, reused or recycled to support the complete lifecycle of the garment and its revival for resale. As a thank you for donating, they will give you £5 off your next shop* with them. *£30 minimum spend, valid for 3 months

TK Maxx
TK Maxx’s Give Up Clothes For Good scheme helps transform the items you no longer need into funds for life-saving research into children’s cancers. Simply donate a bag of pre-loved quality clothes, accessories or homeware to TK Maxx in Broadmead – you will find the collection bin on the ground floor.

Zara
You can donate items of clothing you no longer need (any brand and any condition) to the clothes collection point located near the doors at Zara Cabot Circus. Garments donated through this scheme are given to the British Red Cross, who sort the clothes, recycle fabrics to raise funds and sell donated items through their charity shops.

Recycle your rags

Recycle your rags (or unsellable clothes) at the St Peter’s Hospice shop on Bond Street.

Recycle your shoes

Clarks
Once you are ready to pass your shoes along, give them another lease of live by donating them to Clarks ShoeShare, which supports UNICEF as they strive to transform the lives of children everywhere. Find out more about the scheme at sustainability/shoeshare.

schuh
schuh, who have a store in Cabot Circus, have joined forces with Recyclatex for the Sell your Soles campaign, encouraging customers to recycle any unwanted footwear, rewarding them with a £5 voucher to redeem on a new pair at schuh.
Recyclatex ensure approximately 98% of all donations are recycled. Not only that, but for every tonne of footwear donated, Recyclatex will donate a sum of money to schuh, which they will then pass on to their chosen sustainable charity; World Land Trust.
For further information,  including T&Cs, click schuh.co.uk/help/sell-your-soles.

Recycle your running shoes with JogOn

An estimated 33 million running shoes ends up in landfill each year and stay there, for up to 1,000 years before decomposing. People can donate their shoes by either posting them via Evri, Tesco Express on Broadmead is one of the Evri drop off points for this scheme. You’ll find the instructions to send your shoes at jogonagain.com/sendusyourshoes

Recycle your spectacles and contact lenses

Boots
You can recycle your used contact lenses, blister packs and foil covers at Boots, just drop them into the bin located near the optician’s desk on the first floor.

Specsavers
Drop your used glasses and contact lenses in the collection box located on the ground floor. more information about the scheme at specsavers.co.uk/glasses/recycling

Recycle your electrical items

Currys
Drop off your old electrical items at Currys in Cabot Circus. Items that can be recycled include: cameras, computers, DVD/CD players, toys and games, hairdryers and electric toothbrushes, laptops, microwave, mobile phones, table lamps, toasters, kettles, vacuums, and TVs. (Due to lack of space, they will not be able to take large items such as washing machines, dryers and ovens). Toners and cartridges can also be recycled at Currys. More information at recycling.
You can also trade off your used piece of tech to get £5 off your next piece of kit. More info at trade-in.

Sparks
Recycle your small electrical items in Sparks including cables and plugs, personal hair grooming products, personal tech, small household items, small kitchen appliances and please remember to remove batteries from these items.

Recycle your games

CeX is the UK’s biggest second-hand electronics and entertainment specialist. You can buy, sell and exchange your games, phones, consoles, laptops, tablets, computers, electronics & gadgets for cash. Upgrade your tech for less by trading your unwanted tech in at CeX, and grabbing yourself that new phone, new games, consoles, laptops and tech. You’ll find them on Broadmead.

Recycle your toys

The Entertainer
The Entertainer’s Big Toy Rehoming scheme is operated in partnership with the Salvation Army. Drop any toys no longer played with into their store in Cabot Circus and they will rehome them via The Salvation Army. Since they launched in 2019 they have rehomed over 40,000 toys, preventing them from finding their way into landfill.

T&Cs:
Toys with a valid CE mark on the toy or packaging will be passed to The Salvation Army for rehoming.
Toys without a valid CE mark on the toy or packaging will be safely recycled.
No soft toys or plush will be accepted.

Recycle your household batteries

Boots
Drop off your old batteries at Boots, which you can enter via Broadmead or The Galleries, in the bin located by the photo department on the top floor.

Lidl
You will find battery recycling bins in Lidl on the corner of Union Street and Nelson Street. They are located near the exit, after you’ve come through the tills.

Robert Dyas
Not only can you recycle household batteries at Robert Dyas in The Galleries, you can also drop off all types of light bulbs and Brita water filters for recycling.
You will find a bin in store where you can drop off your batteries and Brita filters but for safety reasons the light bulbs need to be handed in at the till.

Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s in Broadmead will accept your used batteries. Ask a member of staff to direct you to the bin.

Superdrug
Drop your used batteries into Superdrug on Broadmead and they can recycle them for you through their membership of the Distributor Take Back Scheme.

Recycle your medicine packets

Superdrug operates the UK’s first medicine packet recycling programme.
They’ve teamed up with brands like Buscopan, Dulcolax and TerraCycle UK to include collection boxes in every Superdrug Pharmacy, so you can recycle your empty medicine blister packets.  For every blister packet collected, TerraCycle® will donate points to Superdrug pharmacies to be redeemed into financial donations towards Marie Curie.
Start collecting empty medicine blisters so the next time you are able to visit your Superdrug pharmacy, you can drop them off in the dedicated collection boxes. Start collecting your little packs now and start making a big impact!

Find out more at Everything you need to know about in-store recycling at Superdrug

Recycle your mobile phone

O2
O2 allows you to sell your old phone (from any network) through their O2 recycle scheme. You can also recycle tablets, MP3s, Kindles and wearables. All of the phones go to O2’s recycling partners to be processed in an environmentally friendly manner. Devices can be recycled in store or online. Simply visit o2recycle.co.uk and follow the instructions.

Recycle your paper cup

For Cups Sake Bins
Hubbub funded Bristol Waste’s For Cups Sake campaign between 2020 – 2023. The decision was made to remove the cup bins suffering from contamination but to keep the ones that performed well. During this campaign they collected nearly 10 tonnes of cups, that’s over 800,000 cups and planted 80 trees. The collected cups were all given a second life as high-quality paper, packaging and stationery products.

Costa
Costa are on a mission to recycle as many paper cups as possible. What’s more, they accept them from any brand. Just hand over your used paper cup to one of their team or pop them in a cup recycling bin. They say: “remember, don’t put cups into the general waste bin otherwise we can’t recycle them!”
Costa helped to set up the National Cup Recycling Scheme in 2018, which has so far recycled over 165 million cups.

Also, if you’re a member of their Costa Club loyalty scheme, every time you buy a barista made drink (Hot or Cold) in a reusable cup they’ll give you an extra Bean token. This means after only four drinks in a reusable cup, you’ll earn one for free!
In Bristol Shopping Quarter, you’ll find Costa on Broadmead, on Union Street and in Cabot Circus.

Recycle your plastic and make-up containers

Boots
Bring your empty beauty, health, wellness and dental products that can’t be recycled at home (from any brand), and earn extra Advantage Card points when you recycle them at Boots Broadmead.  For further information and to sign up to their recycling scheme, head to boots-recycling-scheme. You can also download the Recycle at Boots app

Lush
Lush in Cabot Circus recycle any of their own packaging. Simply hand your items for recycling to any member of staff.

To encourage recycling, Lush will give you 50p towards your Lush shopping per qualifying item you take back. You can now also return your 10ml sample pots for an additional 5p/c off your shopping per item! This ‘deposit’ return will be taken off your total bill at the till-point for purchases on the same day. You can also claim a free fresh mask for every five full-sized Lush plastic packaging items you return. You’ll find further information, including the T&Cs, at lush.com/recycle.

Superdrug
L’Oreal has introduced make-up recycling bins across 1,000 UK stores in a push to encourage consumers to make up not make waste. Its make-up brand Maybelline is partnering with recycling firm TerraCycle to allow customers to recycle all make-up not just theirs. The locations include Superdrug on Broadmead. Read our post for further information about the scheme.

The Body Shop
Their Cabot Circus now has refill stations to reduce their plastic consumption. Club members can earn double points on all refill purchases (T&Cs apply).

You will also find a bin for recycling any of your plastic bottles in Broadmead, Savers.

The Perfume Shop

The Perfume Shop has partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects (Eden) to help give back to our planet. Eden plant trees in locations around the world. For every bottle recycled with them, they’ll donate the cost of planting one tree to Eden Reforestation Projects, to help them carry out their amazing work and help you feel good when you smell good.
Bring your empty bottle or bottles to your Perfume Shop in Cabot Circus and they’ll ensure their recycling partner disposes of all bottles in an environmentally friendly way.
As a big thank you to you for recycling your bottles through their scheme, they’ll give you 15% off your next purchase in-store on the day or online.

Recycle your jewellery

Astrid & Miyu in Quakers Friars have their very own recycling scheme, renewing your jewels and giving them a new lease of life.
Either send your jewellery back to them via post, or visit their stores to drop off your unwanted sterling silver and solid gold jewellery. They accept jewellery from other brands, too! They’ll send off your jewels to be recycled and, and, for this, you will receive 1,000 loyalty points (equivalent to £10) to spend in store or online.  Less waste, more sparkle – win, win.
After they have processed all of your recycled jewels, they will donate the money raised to The Felix Project ~ recycling your jewellery will do good for the community, as well as the environment. More information astrid-renew-recycling.

Recycle your books

WHSmith launched a recycling scheme for books! BookCycle is a great way for you to exchange any unwanted or second-hand books filling up your bookshelves at home. It’s really simple to do – just register your old books on their website on their website and then take them into a participating store to get your eGift voucher emailed directly to your inbox to spend in-store or online! Your old books will then be passed on for another reader to enjoy or will be responsibly recycled. Win win!

Recycle other items

Light bulbs – You can dispose of any kind of used light bulbs at Robert Dyas. For safety reasons, they need to be handed in at the till.
Brita water filters – You will find a collection point at Robert Dyas.
Nespresso capsules – Just pick up a bag from Starbucks (Merchant Street) and return it full with your used capsules.
Vapes – Recycle your vape at Evapo and learn more about recycling different types of vapes on their website.

Did you know?

• You can pick up Starbucks‘ brewed coffee-grounds, which can be used as a soil enricher, free of charge!
• Starbucks and Costa offers £0.25 off any beverage if you use your own cup (regardless of where it was purchased).

We will update this page as we hear about more recycling opportunities.

Could you repair or alter instead?

The reason some of our clothes remain unworn is because they no longer fit, need repairing, or they don’t suit our style or taste anymore. And sometimes we wear old favourites until they are literally falling apart, when a simple repair can give them a new lease of life.

To overcome this you can:

• look for shops nearby that offer repair and alteration services (see our list on our blog)
• wear clothes in new combinations and use accessories to give clothing a new lease of life
• use energy efficient laundry methods

Help Yourself to Hangers at Cabot Circus

Instead of buying brand new hangers, help yourself to free ones at Cabot Circus, by the former information point.

 

Bristol Climate Hub

Bristol Climate Hub is a fantastic resource, a place for discovering how we can all play our part in looking after the world. Visit it to get ideas, get inspired, and get involved.

bristolclimatehub.org

Feature image by anncapictures from Pixabay