Maternity and baby product retailer Mothercare is working in partnership with environmental charity Hubbub by asking shoppers to return old baby clothes to stores for those in need.
The charitable scheme is aiming to redistribute 65,000 items to more than 6,500 households around the country.
Last year’s pilot between environmental charity Hubbub and Mothercare – which saw more than 20,000 items of clothing being allocated to around 2,000 families in just one month – is being expanded nationwide.
The companies are working together to increase circular economy solutions for baby clothing with the expansion of the ‘Gift a Bundle’ campaign.
Gift a Bundle encourages households to create bundles of outgrown baby clothing to one of 42 participating Mothercare stores. Bundles will be redistributed to local families on Mothers’ Day.
The original trial ran in 2016 in South East London and saw 13 stores take part in 2017. In the run up to last Mother’s Day, on 26 March, parents were urged to gift bundles of six to 10 items of good quality baby clothing
“Hubbub believes that Gift a Bundle is a scalable model that could become an integral part of how Mothers’ Day is celebrated in the UK,” said Hubbub’s founder Trewin Restorick.
Research from Hubbub found that 183 million items of outgrown baby clothes are stored in UK homes. If all the items were reallocated, each baby born in the UK every year would gain 250 items.