Swap shop success in LUU
A swap shop on 27 June, held in partnership between Leeds University Union and the Sustainability Service, was a huge success. More than 200 attendees took part, swapping almost 400 items.
Swap shops are when people bring unwanted but good-condition clothes and swap them for someone else's items. For participants, they get a chance to refresh their wardrobe with new-to-them items for free. The aim is to increase the lifecycle of clothing by encouraging sharing and reuse, reducing the amount of clothes that end up in landfill.
Swap shops can help contribute to a sustainable circular economy - a term used to describe an economy where materials are valued, reused, repaired, and remade to avoid them going to waste as well as avoiding the need to extract resources to make new goods.
The swap shop ran from 10-4 in the Riley Smith Theatre and student volunteers were on hand to help run the event. A total of 203 attendees were able to find new homes for a combined 393 items, which included:
- 22 coats
- 30 dresses
- 53 jumpers
- 155 tops
- 63 trousers/playsuits
- 70 non-clothes items
The event supported work that the Sustainability Service, in collaboration with Beckett University, Unipol and Leeds City Council, has been doing to support students and reduce waste during the tenancy changeover period. It followed a previous successful swap shop in 2023’s LUU Climate Week.
If you are interested in attending or volunteering at a swap shop in the future, make sure you are following our Eventbrite and social channels for updates.