Our Commitment

At DEBRA UK we are working hard to develop a long term sustainability plan and to significantly reduce our carbon footprint. DEBRA’s 109 charity shops across the UK help to prevent tonnes of textiles and furniture going to landfill each year. We are reducing the single use of plastic bags across our retail outlets, trialling alternatives to plastic for carriers.

Recycling

Last year DEBRA recycled almost 1 million kilos of used rags through charitable donations which included items such as clothes, shoes, towels, dishcloths, knickers, socks and tights.

DEBRA works in partnership with a number of textile recycling organisations to ensure that any clothing item we have which is deemed unsalable is either recycled or redistributed to another country for re-use. Ragging prevents used clothes from going straight to landfill.

An average bag of rags is about 4 to 6 kilos which can contribute up to £2 for our charity.

Re-use

Over 1000 tonnes of Furniture and Electrical (F&E) items were re-housed in 2019 by DEBRA F&E retail outlets and the total amount of clothing and accessories sold by DEBRA’s 120 charity shops reached almost 1 million.

DEBRA UK provides a free collection and pick up service for F&E goods (within a 15-mile radius of the nearest DEBRA store). This saves our customers using transport to deliver goods, as well as further helping to reduce landfill in local areas.