On Saturday 1 March, visitors to the March Reduce and Recycle hub can take part in a Costume Swap for World Book day by either taking one costume per person and/or donate an old one for someone else to enjoy. The swap will be open from 12 to 2 pm at St Mary’s Church Acton. World Book Day is on Thursday 6th March 2025 and many families will start to think about which of the children’s favourite book characters they will be dressing up as this year, so put our swap in your diary and pop along. Even if your children aren’t taking part in a world book day dressing up day event but love a costume, please join in the fun and pop along. Invite family and friends so they can enjoy choosing their costume together.
What is World Book Day?
World Book Day is an event held annually in the UK on the first Thursday in March and run by a charity. Reading is the single biggest indicator that your child will grow up to enjoy a happier and successful. However, today the challenge is that reading is at an all-time low, with only 1 in 3 children saying they enjoy reading. World book Day organisers believe children are more likely to read if they enjoy it, so they are on a mission to encourage them to see reading as an entertaining, social and fun thing to do. Part of World Book day celebrations in is schools is to ask children to dress up as their favorite character.
So World Book Day can be an exciting event for children, is a great way to get kids excited about reading, It also gives the children an opportunity to not wear their school uniform for one day. However, buying a new costume every year is damaging to the environment. As well as adding to the rising costs of living for families. For many families producing or purchasing a new costume each year can also put unwelcome financial pressure. Furthermore, many costumes are bought and worn once before being discarded, with most ending up in landfill. Its such a waste.
In fact the whole fashion industry is a disaster. According to the UN Environment Programme, the fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 2-8 percent of global carbon emissions. Also on average we buy 60 percent more pieces of clothing than 15 years ago and each item is only kept for half as long.
What a waste of fancy costumes!
For J&B recycling, who deal with the North East of England household waste are always sad to see fancy dress costumes in the mixed household recycling that end up at their Material Recovery Facility (MRF). Find out what happens to our rubbish in Ealing from Mary our Reduce and Recycle hub manager. Also see Crayford MRF where our Ealing recycling is sent to.
At MRF recycling sites, they can’t recycle costumes and other similar items. Many similar items end up at MRF recycling sites are unable to be recycled and have to be diverted back to landfill or incineration. Many store-bought fancy dress costumes are made from synthetic materials like polyester. These are difficult to recycle. Additionally, these costumes often include accessories such as masks, wigs, and props made from mixed materials. This further complicates any chance of recycling them.
Particularly disheartening for those at recycling centres is the number of children’s costumes they see. Many are in good enough quality to be reused, and sometimes even brand new.
Pictured here is a gorilla mask that gave the J&B quality control team a bit of a fright! Imagine the fun someone could have had with that – it should not have ended up in the recycling bin!
Mary Horesh, Manager of the Reduce and Recycle hub says “There is a lot of waste around kids’ costumes, especially with the growth in popularity of events such as World Book Day. We ran the Halloween Costume swap this year and the positive response we got was amazing. A city university Media student visited the swap to interview us. She mentioned it was the only sustainable event for Halloween she could find.”
Costume Swap for World Book on Saturday 1st March
At our swaps, you can either give donations, take donations or both. It is all about getting everyone to wear their clothes for longer.
The Fancy Dress Costume swap for World Book Day is free at the Reduce and Recycle hub. It will take place on Saturday 1st March from 12 am to 2pm, inside St Mary’s Church Acton.
On the day you can choose up to 1 costume per visitor, while stocks last. This is to make sure there’s enough available for everyone. If you have unwanted costumes, please drop them off to us on the day until 1 pm or at a drop off point listed below.
For the costumes collected, the Reduce and Recycle hub have no responsibility for these costumes. They will be taken as seen, donated and taken at the parents/carers consent. We also cannot guarantee that everyone will find a suitable costume to swap.
Drop off Points
We all have costumes that are too small or have grown bored of, so please pass them on. We are looking for outfits and accessories that are clean and good condition. Pop up drop are being confirmed currently and will be published here. The costumes dropped off will be part of Fancy Dress Costume swap in Acton on Saturday 1st March. Ealing Repair café will take donations at their sessions around the borough. See Whats on for the dates.
Pingback: March Reduce & Recycle Hub: The Finale - MarketW3