What is a Baby Clothes Library?
A ‘Baby Clothes Library’ is a scheme which provides clothes for babies, toddlers, and infants at low or no cost. Baby clothes share schemes can be a huge benefit for low income families, avoiding the need to spend money on clothes that will last only a few months, but a baby clothes library is much more than that!
Community circular economy schemes like clothes libraries are as much about reducing consumption, manufacturing, and waste as they are about cost-saving. The fashion industry is a MASSIVE contributor to global emissions and waste, and relentless advertising pressures us into ever-more consumerist lifestyles. Community-led initiatives like clothes libraries can help us to sidestep these destructive industries, whilst supporting our neighbours!
We therefore encourage the entire community to make use of the Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library, read on to find out how to hire or donate clothing!
Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library, Guildford
Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library provides boxes of baby and toddler clothes by age, for a refundable deposit of just £20. (Though you can leave the £20 in as a donation if you prefer). The boxes come in age ranges:
- Premature
- Newborn (0-1 months)
- 0-3 months
- 3-6 months
- 6-12 months
- 12-18 months
- 18 months – 2yrs
Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library was started in 2021, as the brainchild of Guildford resident Rachel Sarno. Nicky Daw joined soon after, supporting Rachel to run this very popular service. Rachel and Nicky created a partnership with Zero Carbon Guildford who are helping to expand and develop the project. In 2024 Rachel and Nicky handed over the directorship to Claire and Will Newby.
As mentioned, although clothes libraries schemes can be a lifesaver for some families, we would like to make this scheme accessible to the whole community as a means of reducing consumption and waste. Whilst care needs to be taken to ensure that those in need of the scheme are supported, we want to make using a clothes library a norm for all. We hope that with the support of the community we can help to upscale this project into an exemplar model of community-led climate action schemes, with enough resources to cater for any family who wants to get involved in waste and consumption reduction.
Benefits Of Clothes Libraries
The fashion industry is an enormous contributor to climate breakdown and ecological destruction. The sector is responsible for about 4% of global CO2 emissions – more than aviation! – and in 2018 alone the fashion industry produced a massive 2.1 billion tons of CO2, with the UK being the 4th largest textile waste contributor in the world.
The vast majority of people have no idea how destructive the fashion industry is, particularly ‘Fast Fashion’, and addressing this is critical to tackling consumption driven climate change and ecological destruction. Unless we find ways to educate and engage our communities, encouraging individuals to pay mind to where the endless conveyor belt of cheap clothing comes from and the scale of its impact on our ecosystems, we can’t hope to overcome this problem.
At the same time, simply telling people why something is destructive or extractive is not enough to drive behavioural change. We need to find innovative alternatives that help us sidestep these processes, and community-led circular economy schemes such as clothes libraries are a brilliant way to begin this conversation and thought process.
By offering clothes share schemes and clothing libraries we can offer a direct alternative to the emissions-heavy fashion industry, whilst sparking conversation and inspiring innovation within our communities to begin building models which ensure that our behaviour doesn’t just protect, but regenerates the ecosystems which we depend on for life, and which are disappearing from human-induced stresses. We don’t expect this to be a quick or easy process, but we need to open a conversation on it, and community share schemes are a brilliant way to begin that difficult dialogue.
Get involved
If you have children’s clothes from 0-24 months that your child has grown out of we would LOVE you to support the Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library.
Get in touch with ZCG, or directly with Claire and Will to chat about donating, or drop your clean baby clothes to us at ZCG.
And if you’d like to volunteer for this amazing initiative then we’d love to have you involved!