3 R’s Fashion Fix
Lesson Plan
Links to Curriculum:
Science, Geography, PSHE
Concept:
To discover where our clothes come from, the processes that are involved in producing
them and what happens when we no longer need them.
General Goal(s):
By the end of the lesson, pupils will have an understanding about different types of
materials, how far these materials travel and the effect that textile disposal has on their
environment.
Learning objectives:
Group interaction, listening and communicating.
The importance of reduce, reuse and recycle.
Global issues.
Global dimensions.
Resource Items:
Projector and laptop.
3 R’s Fashion Fix Power Point Presentation.
Plain t-shirts for pupils to decorate.
Procedures:
Introduce the lesson and explain to the pupils what textiles are. Explain that there will be a
short presentation with questions and answers. An arts and crafts class will follow where
pupils will reuse the items of clothing they have brought in, to create an eco message on
them.
3 R’s Fashion Fix Power Point Presentation Notes
Slide 1
Slide 2
Introductory
picture
Textile Waste

The UK creates around 1 million tonnes of textile waste
every year.
Q. How much of this gets reduced, reused or recycled? (ask pupils for
ideas)
A. 25% of textile waste is reduced, reused or recycled.

Half of all the clothes, shoes and accessories bought in
2008 were never worn.
This cost us an estimated £11.1 billion and produced more CO2 than
all the houses in Wales!
Slide 3
Textile Waste

Textiles can be made from three main types of materials
(Keystage 2 pupils may be able to name some of them such as
cotton, polyester, leather etc)
Q. Can anyone name any of these?
A. Animal fibres, plant fibres and man-made fibres.

Man-made fibres do not decompose in landfill because
they are usually made from oil, just like plastics.

Natural fibres from animals and plants decompose in
landfill to produce methane.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change.
Slide 4
Animal, plant or
man-made?
Slide 5
Textile: Reduce
Ask your pupils to guess which of the materials on this slide are made
from animal, plant or an-made fibres.

Reducing the amount of textiles we buy and then waste, is the
best option for the environment.
Q. How can we reduce our textile waste?
A. We can do this by avoiding buying clothes because they are cheap.
Invest in better quality clothes.
Give unwanted clothes to charity.
Give clothes that are too small to other family members.
Quote – “Cheap clothes/textiles have usually exploited people or the
environment.”
Slide 6
Slide 7
Satellite image
of
environmental
change (picture)
Human
Exploitation

When clothes are produced cheaply, it usually means the people
making these clothes are working in bad conditions and being paid
very little money.

In some case, these workers may be children as young as ten,
picking cotton or making the clothes

The cheaply made clothes are often produced for high street shops.
Quote “UNICEF believe that 1 in 6 children between 5 and 14 have to work.”
Slide 8
Textile: Reuse

Reuse is the next best environmental option and is the most
common way of stopping textiles ending up in landfill.
–Vintage Boutiques
–Charity Shops
–Donations to less economically developed countries

Over 70% of the population use second hand clothes.
Fact “If everyone in the UK bought one second hand woollen jumper each
year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water (a UK
reservoir holds about 300 million gallons) and 480 million gallons of
dyestuffs
Slide 9
Slide 10
Textile: Recycle
Activity

Textile recycling is one of the oldest forms of recycling.

200 Years ago in Yorkshire, Benjamin Law used unwanted cloth
and some new wool to make a material called shoddy. Shoddy was
used to make new items.

Today textiles are still recycled. Clothes that can’t be reused by
charities are recycled in to cloths, rags and fillers/padding for sofas.

Even old plastic bottles can be recycled in to clothes.

It is now your turn to reuse the item of clothing you brought in, to
spread a message about the environment to everyone that sees
you. You need to make it;
- Clear
- Eye-catching
-
Readable