It’s estimated that every year, the British population ends up throwing away around 300,000 tonnes of fabric waste. For context, that’s 30 Eiffel towers piled up on top of each other, 300,000 African elephants, or 14 million Christmas trees. 

While for many shopping is the best part of Christmas, as the bin turns into a skyscraper of wrapping paper, or you secretly return that hideous jumper a very distant aunt gave you, more of us are starting to ask: where is all this rubbish going? 

The answer is simple: far, far away from here. But just because you can’t see the rubbish close to home, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Nor does it mean we won’t live with the repercussions.

One alternative for those wanting to shop locally this Christmas in Jesmond is to buy fewer new items and instead to look into charity shops and second-hand stores. With fairly priced renewed items of clothes, shoes, books, furniture and sports equipment, these high street staples have a huge positive impact on both society and our environment.

JesmondLocal spoke with members of Jesmond’s community who are working to make the place a more green-friendly location this Christmas. Jesmond is home to three charity shops, located on Acorn Road, St. George’s Terrace and Hazelwood Avenue. These shops often receive hundreds of donations throughout the year, with Christmas being a particular highlight in their calendars for donations.

Alli Head, the assistant manager for Mind, has worked in the Jesmond store for two years. Previously working in health and social care, Head told JesmondLocal the initial draw to working for Mind was that helping with those mental health difficulties. It was a “big persuader”, she said.

“The most rewarding part of this job is working with the volunteers, who are amazing,” she added. “Without them the shop just wouldn’t run. The sustainability aspect is so important too. Here at Mind nothing gets wasted. If we can’t sell something we rag it and use it for other purposes”.

Mind allows anyone to come and volunteer, with ex-paediatricians, teachers and students joining in to help raise awareness for a cause that affects everyone.

Head explained: “I’ve noticed so many more people coming in this year compared to last Christmas and getting gifts from Mind. One woman came in and spent £90, and got so much good quality stuff, a lot of it new too”.

Mind receives donations from anyone, with a lot of their furniture being gifted by local landlords, students and residents. Head explained to JesmondLocal that when people have had items on secondhand sites such as Gumtree or Facebook Market Place, they come in and give their donations to the charity shop. This means that furniture, books and clothes avoid the landfills. 

Head also explained how many local student residents find essential furniture such as desks, chairs and other furniture in Mind to help furnish their homes. This also ensures that people avoid ‘fast furniture‘, where huge amounts of deforestation occurs to create the furniture we find in shops such as IKEA.

She said: “The clothes are all dated from the time they go out, and if they don’t sell we bag them up and move them to another Mind shop.”

According to the UN Environment Programme, the fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions, with the prediction that by 2030 it will be an eye-watering 60%. This ends up being more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.  

Studies also found that 85% of all textiles made annually end their life in dumps and landfills, with the main culprits being Zara, Shein, H&M and Forever 21. The landfills, most commonly situated in Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya and Chile. 

By choosing to shop in charity shops, residents of Jesmond have the opportunity to reduce their Christmas carbon footprint, all whilst finding fairly priced items that support fantastic causes.

JesmondLocal also spoke to workers in St Oswald’s Hospice, located on Hazelwood Avenue. 

Often receiving donations of designer labels, such as Gucci, Burberry, Barbour, Ray-Ban and The North Face, St Oswald’s has successfully made their shop into a boutique full of second-hand luxury goods. 

Mark Harris, manager of St Oswald’s, told JesmondLocal how the shop receives such generous donations from the public.

“The majority of donations come across the door,” he said. “We have amazing supporters who live in and around the Jesmond area who kindly donate their pre-loved clothes and accessories to us, knowing that they’ll be sold on to raise money for the hospice.”

The hospice helps those with terminal illnesses and their families, focusing on living and dying well.

Harris said: “It is a home-from-home, filled with honesty and hope that offers quality time for everyone”. 

With Christmas shopping right around the corner, it’s often difficult for people to find fairly priced, well made and environmentally friendly gifts – pushing some into the centre of town and towards major retailers selling products at cheaper prices.

Areas such as Newcastle’s Northumberland Street are hot-spots for Christmas shoppers, with mainstream stores such as Primark, JD Sport and Fenwick providing all the keen shopper would need. 

Primark’s carbon footprint annually sits at around six million tonnes of CO2e – a 3.9% decrease from last year, but something that environmental campaigners still has some way to improve.

Dan Roe, Primark’s senior manager for its Climate Change Programme told JesmondLocal: “Reducing our carbon footprint is imperative to meet our environmental commitments and to ensure we do our part to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Our Primark Cares strategy cements our commitment to halving carbon emissions across our value chain by 2030.”

On average each British person throws away 3.1kg of textiles each year on average, with 1.7kg ending up in landfill. By choosing second-hand stores such as these local charity shops, we have the capacity to not only contribute to an essential positive change for the planet, but also the chance to support the amazing local people who are making a difference to others’ lives in the North East of England.