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Recycling

SAVE LIVES AND THE PLANET – WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?

Donated clothes, shoes and textiles have earned us over £1,000,000 so far, keeping us at the frontline of saving lives.

We work with our recycling partner to receive a share from the sale of your donated items. Good quality donations that can be reused are sold to second-hand clothing traders, while ‘end of life’ items are recycled into new fibres.

Find your nearest clothing bank.

There are around 100 clothes and recycling banks across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire – with new banks being added all the time.

To find your nearest bank, please email our team at fundraising@tvairambulance.org.uk or use the button below.

We are looking for new clothes bank locations

We’re always looking for places to put a new clothes recycling bank.

If your organisation has regular, returning visitors and a piece of flat land that everyone has access to, you may be able to help. For more information, or to go ahead and arrange for a bank to be delivered, contact Recycling Solutions via the link below.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance Recycling FAQS

We work with Recycling Solutions to receive a share from the sale of your donated items, which are either recycled or sold to second-hand clothing traders. We get a guaranteed of the sale value. This means we receive a sustainable monthly income, with no cost to us.

When the bank is emptied, the items are sent to the nearest BIU depot and sold to sorting operations across the world. Each item is graded and either re-sold as second-hand clothing or recycled.

No. There is no cost to you or us. If you would like to host a clothing bank, please get in touch with Recycling Solutions or email us at fundraising@tvairambulance.org.uk.

Do you have space in your car park? Do you own or manage an area of land?

We are on the look out for suitable, high traffic areas with nearby parking and spaces that will make a good home for our clothing banks. If you think you can help, we would love to hear from you.

Please contact Wendy at Recycling Solutions:
Phone: 01706 692 900
Email: wendy.yarney@recyclingsolutions.org.uk

If your local clothing bank is full, please let us know and Recycling Solutions will send a van to empty it. Please do not leave donations outside of the clothing bank. Instead, take it to the nearest empty clothing bank.


You can notify us of a full clothing bank, calling Recycling Solutions on 01706 692 900, or by emailing tvaa@recyclingsolutions.org.uk.

What happens to Your Donated Clothing?

Clothing banks are regularly emptied by our collection teams.

The clothing is returned to local hubs and baled into hessian sacks.

The clothing is sold to trading partners, both in the UK and abroad to be sorted.

Once the clothing is sold Thames Valley Air Ambulance receive funds, but the story doesn’t end there.

The trading partner will transport the clothing to the factory to be sorted.

Clothing is separated by type and then graded by quality. This ranges from items which are not in a re-wearable condition to high-quality pieces of clothing.

All items which are able to be resold are sent onwards to second hand shops or markets within Europe, Africa or Asia.

Any items which cannot be re-worn are shredded and recycled into wiper rags, mattress stuffing or even pellets for punch bags.

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