Ten primary schools in the municipality of Venlo took part in the Textile Race. The Sint Jozefschool in Tegelen won the competition. It is organized by Race Against Waste BV in Eindhoven. The aim is to make children aware of the reuse of items. They also learn how to mend clothes during the project.
“This exceeds all my expectations, I am really perplexed,” says Erik Lagrand of Het Goed in Venlo. The manager of the thrift department store looks at the immense pile of plastic bags full of textiles that the students of PassePartout primary school in Tegelen have brought together. Over 9,500 kilos! Teacher Esther van de Ven is very proud: “We collected the most from all schools, but the number of kilos was divided by the number of participating students. There were more than 80 with us. That is why we came in second place.”
Child labor
PassePartout decided to participate because of the history lesson on child labour. “In it we also talk about the textile industry and child labor in some countries. We therefore thought it would be a good idea to participate in the Textile Race.” Esther van de Ven helps load four trucks full of textiles. The children run to and fro with the bags.
To recover
Students repair clothes in a classroom. Boys and girls use needle and thread there and they skillfully mend the holes and sew on buttons. “Those are good manual skills lessons. And they also have to calculate how many kilos are coming in and how the numbers should be rounded. So that falls under the math class,” says Miss Esther. “And of course the awareness about reuse. Where previously clothing was thrown away because it was broken, I now even see students come to school with a self-repaired hole in their pants.”
Quality
The quality of the collected clothing is above expectations, according to Erik Lagrand. “75 to 80 percent of the textiles can be worn by new owners in this way. The rest can be processed for reuse, then you have to think of cleaning materials and such.”