Money for old clothes

If you need a little extra motivation to recycle your unwanted clothes, how about some cash to buy new ones? That's the incentive on offer from Oxfam and Marks and Spencer, who've teamed up to help us do the right thing.

They're offering a £5 M&S voucher for every bag of unwanted clothing donated to Oxfam that contains an item from M&S.

Is there a catch?

Not really, just a few conditions:

To qualify for a voucher, your donation must include at least one item of M&S-labelled clothing (shoes, handbags, belts, hats and scarves are all acceptable, lingerie, swimwear, underwear, socks, or damaged or soiled items are not)

• Only one £5 voucher per visit, so make that trip to Oxfam a regular date in your diary
• The voucher can only be spent on M&S purchases of clothing, homeware or beauty products that total £35 or more
• Each voucher is redeemable only during the calendar month in which you receive it and cannot be used for purchases made online or by phone

The nationwide scheme has already raised over £1 million for Oxfam so if you want to join in and start exchanging clothes for cash, pop into these local Oxfam stores:

• 11 Chequer Street, St Albans, AL1 3YJ (Tel: 01727 848930)
• 161 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4LB (Tel: 01727 854251) Email: oxfamshopf3608@btconnect.com

Find out more at: www.oxfam.org.uk and http://plana.marksandspencer.com

What about the rest of my clutter?

Keep it out of landfill and make someone's day by joining St Albans Reuse (previously Freecycle) and becoming a bookcrosser.