In the old days we had rag and bone men, who took your old clothes and recycled them. We don’t see them around any more, but there are still businesses specialising in reclaiming textiles, many of them supplied by the charity sector.

How you dress yourself and how you dress your home is probably very important to you. Here’s a few more things to think about:

Buying: when you buy clothes and furnishings, think about their sources, who made them, who takes the profit, the materials they are made from, and what you can do with them when you’ve finished with them.

Cleaning: once you’ve bought clothes or furnishings, think about how you are going to look after them, what products are you going to use to keep them clean, how much energy will you use to look after them.

What are they doing to you: many clothes and furnishings contain chemicals: from their manufacture, as raw materials, as additives or treatments.