Shoppers in Burton and South Derbyshire are being invited to bin their bras - to help a group of ladies dedicated to fighting breast cancer.
The Burton branch of Soroptimists International is launching a recycling mission in the town and is urging women to bring unwanted bras to The Octagon shopping centre to help raise funds for breast cancer charities.
From 10am to 4pm on Saturday, January 20, the Burton Soroptimists will be in the shopping centre collecting discarded mobile phones, ink cartridges, spectacles and unused knitting wool as well as bras.
The charity is also looking for men's ties and leather or canvas belts to support the Purple Community Fund. They will all be recycled/reused to raise funds for various charities.
Shoppers are being invited to donate mobile phones (handsets only) in aid of Water Aid, which is given around £5 per mobile to help people in developing countries, while ink cartridges will help the Against Malaria Foundation.
For each inkjet cartridge recycled, the Red Cross will receive £1. Just one inkjet cartridge could help provide life-saving treatment to three cholera patients or buy a resuscitation face shield to safely deliver vital first aid.
Shoppers can also donate spectacles which will be recycled by Vision Aid Overseas. Any knitting wool (unused skeins or balls) donated will be used by the local Knitting for Peace, which donates knitted items to people in need, and bras will be recycled to raise funds for breast cancer charities.
The Against Breast Cancer charity is just one organisation which holds a recycling bra scheme through bra banks to raise vital funds for pioneering breast cancer research.
The same bras also help to support small businesses in Africa. Together with the charity's recycling partners, its textile recovery project prevents these bras going into landfill before giving them a new lease of life in developing countries such as Togo, Ghana and Kenya, where bras remain too expensive to produce locally.
Successful ventures like this keep many families in developing countries out of poverty while providing employment for people at home in the UK. Any bras genuinely beyond redemption are dismantled and disposed of properly.
For every tonne of bras collected, Against Breast Cancer receives £700 to fund its research.
Burton Soroptimists meetings take place at 7.30pm on the second Monday of the month at Branston Golf and Country Club, Branston. More details are available by visiting www.sigbi.org/burton-upon-trent
