HAVE you stared at the contents of your wardrobe lately; wondered what the hell was going through your head when you bought that pair of shoes; how on earth you could have stepped out of the house wearing that dodgy dress last year?
Old clothes, unfashionable clothes – they all clutter the cupboards (not to mention the embarrassing reminder of what we once thought cool).
Well, you can get rid of them and you don’t have to feel guilty by throwing them away, because a company is there that will take your unwanted clothes, shoes and bags, and help the environment, and help people with special needs.
Recycle Relief is a programme that makes a point of employing people with special needs – while at the same time doing its bit for the planet.
With 21 collection points for clothes in the Larnaca and Famagusta area alone, with more in Nicosia and Limassol, the organisation makes a point of employing people with special needs to go out and collecting sackfuls of old clothes, shoes and bags for delivery to Kettering Textiles in the UK.
From the UK, the clothes are then sent to the Salvation Army Trading Company, which pays for the clothes per ton to be eventually sent to Eastern Europe.
The money received by Kettering Textiles goes directly to the salaries of the workers employed at the collection points in Cyprus.
Since its creation last year, Recycle Relief has striven to create awareness of its service by carrying out campaigns through schools, encouraging children to participate in clothes recycling campaigns. Leaflets are distributed along with collection bags that are left outside homes, which are then collected on a particular date.
The service not only recycles clothes, thus helping to protect the environment, it provides the opportunity for the community to meet, interact and socialise with people with special needs, breaking down some of the prejudices and misconceptions they face.
With the assistance of the Larnaca and Famagusta Mental Health Services, which provide support and counselling, Recycle Relief has successfully employed 16 people with various special needs into its programme. Two employees based in Nicosia are paraplegic (paralysis below the waist), yet otherwise are able to work and live normal lives and through their employment are reintegrated into society.
The service maintains a friendly and reliable team, working together to support the daily requirements of colleagues with special needs, such as allowing flexibility if certain colleagues need to make regular trips to their doctor or if their prescribed medication is causing some obvious side effects.
“Most of our employees do not move on because they like it with us so much,” the President of Recycle Relief told the Sunday Mail.
She founded Recycle Relief in 2002, using her own funds to create the successful programme it has become today. “I had to pay for everything in the beginning. We have been able to progress because of EU funding, and we hope to expand further, helping many more people with special needs.”
Since the launch, the service has achieved recognition as an important community project, both from the government and the EU delegation. It has become part of the EU’s Civil Society Programme and been awarded funding from the European Union on a 10-month project that enabled a Limassol office to open.
Earlier this year, the Head of the EU Delegation in Cyprus, Adriaan van der Meer, visited Recycle Relief in Nicosia, giving the company much needed publicity and congratulating it for having created a scheme which used its proceeds to pay for staff and promote information and awareness.
“The programme contributes to saving the environment and employing people with special needs, so it’s all for a good cause,” the Recycle Relief president added.
“If there were more recycling schemes in Cyprus it would help make aware the worthy cause that Recycle Relief supports,” she said, adding: “people here have not got the mentality to recycle yet.”
The Cyprus Electricity Authority is currently sponsoring Recycle Relief through an advertising campaign by distributing Recycle Relief leaflets with every electricity bill.
So far, 160 tons of clothes, shoes and bags have been collected and delivered to the UK for distribution to other countries.
Recycle Relief’s main office is in Nicosia near the offices PEO at 12a Photini Pana Street. Collection points in Nicosia are in Engomi, Lakatamia and the old Strovolos .unicipality buildings. The Limassol office is at 1 Panayilappas Street, behind Woolworth’s Apollon and there is a drop-off point at the Ayios Athanasios Municipality buildings.
The Larnaca office is situated at the Psychiatric Services at the Old Hospital. For further information about Recycle Relief and collection/drop-off points, contact: 22-345959, 25-731005 or 24-304597. Contact Recycle Relief for more information about becoming a member of the organisation. All drop-off points are situated inside, but donors should not worry about leaving clothes outside.
