Dressed by Vinnies is held any day that works for your school or organisation but one suggestion is National Dressed by Vinnies day on 26 October.

Prior to the event all participants need to visit a local Vinnies shop and purchase any item to wear on the free dress day. They will then be Dressed by Vinnies!

Buy a pre-loved hat, necklace, t-shirt, dress, jacket, shirt, scarf and have fun!
Note: The idea is to raise awareness whilst having fun and not to actually attempt to dress as a homeless person.

More recycling from NSW households could reduce taxes by up to $250 million per year or some $100 per
household, according to the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR).

Speaking at the Keep NSW Beautiful “Sustainable Cities Seminar” and at the NACRO Annual Conference, ACOR CEO Pete Shmigel said recovering more household material for recycling meant less going to landfill where it can be charged up to $140 per tonne by the NSW Government waste levy.

For more, read on.

Charities in Australia spend $13 million on waste management each year, sending 60,000 tonnes of unusable donations; that have no value and can’t be recycled; as waste to landfill every year. On the positive side, charities divert over 500,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill every year by their reuse and recycling programs, with Australians generous donating over 285 million products to charities, giving them a second life – and generating over $500 million in revenue towards social welfare programs for Australia’s most disadvantaged.

For more, watch the news report here.

A Canadian man’s sister had told him it was time to sift through his bulging closet and donate unused old clothing to a charity. That’s when he stumbled on the $1,750,000 winning lottery ticket, which he had purchased last year. The benefits of clearing out old closets and donating to charity!

For more, read on.

This week is Charity Fraud Awareness Week (22 October to 26 October), an international initiative designed to raise awareness about fraud in the charity sector, and share best practice solutions in tackling fraud and financial crime.

For more, click here.

Garage Sale Trail is Australia’s biggest weekend of garage sales, and is happening on October 20 & 21 this year. Over 400,000 Australians will hit the streets that weekend in search of pre-loved bargains.  The event which aims to encourage Australians to choose pre-loved whether through an op shop or garage sale aims to save over 4 million kilograms from landfill each year.

To register your Op Shop on the Trail read on.

Buy Nothing New Month is the brainchild of Tamara DiMattina, who Fairfax call ‘PR to The Planet’. It started in Melbourne and is spreading to the Netherlands and USA. It’s a one month challenge to buy nothing new (with the exception of essentials like food, hygiene and medicines). It’s literally about taking one month off to really think, “Do I really need it?” If I do, “can I get it second-hand, borrow it or rent it? What are my alternatives? Can I borrow from a friend? Can I swap with my neighbour?”

To buy nothing new in October, read on.

In  abeautifully titled article ‘Fashion But Make it Second Hand’, Elle Australia presents 10 useful op shopping tips from women who only buy second hand.

For tips one to ten, read on.

Reports that a defunct computer screen dropped at an Australian retailer for recycling was shipped to a junkyard in Thailand have renewed calls for Australia to get serious about e-waste controls, with calls for Australia to support international ban on such exports. Under current laws any such waste should have been sent to an approved recycler which recycles e-waste safely to avoid serious toxic effects on humans and the environment.

For more from the Basel Action Network, read on.

Sweden “recycles nearly all of its waste” and in doing so “generates electricity and heating”. So should Australia become more like Sweden and make our waste useful? Sweden has banned most landfill and has invested heavily with 34 waste-to-energy plants currently operating, with their first built in the 1940s! With half the waste in Sweden recycled and 49% of it burnt, that’s a 99% recycling rate.

To be inspired by the Swedish way, read on.

Janet Gunter, co-founder of The Restart Project estimates that 1,000 Titanics’ worth of discarded electronics is dumped in the UK, with much of it extremely toxic if mishandled. In 2017, the United Nations University’s Global E-waste Monitor predicted global e-waste would hit 50 million tonnes this year — three million tonnes of it being small objects such as mobile phones. These discarded objects are also a rich source of metals, with an average smartphone containing 24mg of gold worth around $30.

For smarter e-waste urban mining, read on.

The Council for Textile Recycling in the USA estimates that 10,000 tonnes of textiles, in the form of clothes, shoes, accessories, manchester and accessories ends up in landfill. That’s 37kg on average of every person. How to divert these unusable donations from landfill and create new opportunities for recycling or down cycling is a key topic for all charitable recyclers including Australia where NACRO is facilitating conversations from innovative thinkers, some of whom are speaking at the NACRO Annual Conference on the Gold Coast.

For more from the US, read on.