As part of the internal campaign “From ReUsed to ReLoved” carried out in partnership with the Romanian Red Cross – Sector 6 Branch in March, the employees of three BAT entities active in Romania donated for reuse and recycling a total quantity of 1,400 kg of clothes. After sorting and sanitizing, they will either go directly to reuse by needy families, or to recycling, in the case of damaged items.
“At the Red Cross, we created a system for collecting and reusing donated clothes for the benefit of needy families. The clothing donated by our partners will reach those in need with the support of volunteers, who are in charge of sorting, sanitizing and distributing clothing aid. At the same time, we want to jointly contribute to increase responsibility for the resources used in the production of clothing and the length of time the clothes are used. Thank you for your involvement!”, says Ana Derumeaux, Director, Romanian Red Cross – Branch Sector 6 Bucharest.
“We are happy to extend, through this campaign, our impact message launched in 2019, Choose Responsibly for a Clean City, through which we highlight the relevance of seemingly small, everyday gestures on the environment and the communities in which we live. The clothing collection campaign is a continuation of our efforts to develop responsible behaviour regardless of the resources we use. Through our sustainability campaigns, we address both consumers and our commercial partners, as well as our employees, who are actively involved in supporting the principles and objectives of the company to reduce the impact on the environment”, says Ileana Dumitru, Legal and External Affairs Director, South-eastern Europe Area at BAT.
From 1996 to present, the volume of clothes purchased by the average person in the EU has increased by 40 percent, because of the considerable decrease of prices, which in turn reduced the lifespan of clothing items. Europeans consume almost 26 kg of textiles and throw away around 11 kg of textiles every year, most of which (87 percent) are incinerated or landfilled.
