Galedin Vets in Berwick installs clothing bank on site

It is encouraging clients to put their unwanted clothes to better use by dropping them into the recycling bank, which has been set up beside the surgery in Windmill Way West, Berwick.

The clothing donated will be re-sold, reused or recycled.

Money raised from the clothes bank will also be donated to The Cinnamon Trust, a national charity which provides support for elderly and terminally ill pet owners who require practice help such as dog walking or fostering.

The clothes bank, which is operated by Textile Recycling International, is proving a huge success, with both team members and clients making use of the facility.

Chris Richardson, deputy practice manager, said: “Having the clothes bank is a great way to help the environment by recycling old and unwanted clothes, but it’s also an opportunity to support a worthy cause that does so much good work for pets and people.

“We’ve done lots of fundraising as a practice for The Cinnamon Trust, as well as other worthy causes, and having the clothes bank is another way we can raise money for them as the clothes are sold and the proceeds go to our chosen charity.”

Galedin Vets has made an effort to reduce its carbon footprint and cut down waste by introducing a wide range of environmentally friendly initiatives. A few of the green initiatives introduced is the recycling of PPE and equipment including all gloves, aprons, needles and syringes.

The practice is aiming to go paperless, switching to digital systems for sending out invoices, admission forms, statements, drug dockets and consent forms, rather than producing paper documents.

Chris added: “We are extremely conscious that we use a huge amount of paper across our seven sites but we are well on our way to becoming a paperless practice.

“Over the last 12 months we have seen the impact of extreme storms, which caused so much damage to our Berwick practice, and this summer’s heatwave, so we need to take care of our planet and do what we can to protect the environment.”