Success For South Bucks At The Recycled Clothes Show

This November saw the return of the popular Recycled Clothes Show event, held this year at the Wycombe Swan theatre. Over 650 primary and secondary pupils took part, using entirely unwanted textiles, paper and waste materials to make fashion items.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘The Elements’, and pupils were asked to design clothing or accessories which represented one of the four elements; earth, air, fire and water.

This year was the 16th Recycled Clothes Show, organised by the Rethink Rubbish at Schools waste education programme, which delivered a series of fun and informative workshops to more than 1800 pupils in the county, prior to the event. The workshops encouraged pupils to consider the environmental, social and ethical impacts of the fashion industry. Pupils were asked to think about how the 3 R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - can help minimise the damaging impacts of this industry and the judges were asked to consider not only imagination and design content, but also these environmental considerations when judging the entries.

Over 350 primary school pupils produced accessories for the competition. Pupils from High March Primary School in Beaconsfield did fantastically and had three successful winners. Grace Peachey came first in the air category with her superb parasol, Madeleine Speed came third in the earth category with her funky recycled bag and Anna Way took third place in the fire category with her vibrant head band.

All of High March School’s entries, including the winners will be on display in the reception of South Bucks District Council offices until the end of next week, when they will be taken back to High March School to be displayed there.

The Beaconsfield School also took part in the Clothes Show, by designing and making two stage panels that represented the elements of fire and air. The panels were created by using a variety of waste materials collected by the students.

South Bucks District Councillor Bill Lidgate, Portfolio Holder for the Environment, says, ‘The Recycled Clothes Show is an exciting and fun way for pupils to consider the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry. I am delighted that so many winners have come from High March School, and that the Beaconsfield School contributed such excellent artwork for the stage design. All of the schools taking part have done a fantastic job and the pupils should all be very proud of their efforts’.

For further information on the Recycled Clothes Show please visit the Schools section of the Recycle for Bucks website at www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk. 9Opens new window to external site) To find out more about recycling schemes in South Bucks, please see our recycling pages or contact 01895 837362 or email refuseandrecycling@southbucks.gov.uk

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