YOU can now help raise vital funds for The Salvation Army just by donating your unwanted clothes, shoes and other textiles.

The Salvation Army Trading Company has been awarded the contract to manage over 70 donation banks as well as a number of kerbside collections throughout the county.

They are expecting to receive more than 600 tonnes of donated items each year from Devon and Torbay – that’s more than 700,000 garments that could otherwise end up in landfill.

Catherine Inglis, Sales Manager for the charity said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have won the tender and we want to make reuse and recycling as easy as possible.

“The value in people’s unwanted items helps us raise millions of pounds for The Salvation Army each year.

“Not only that, but keeping textiles out of the bin keeps them out of landfill – nothing should be thrown away when it can be reused or recycled!”

Salvation Army Trading Company’s reuse and recycling initiatives have raised £35 million over the last five years.

This money aids their work with homelessness and addiction services, care for older people, help at emergency incidents, support for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales, a Family Tracing Service and much, much more.

Councillor Rodney Cann said: “Less than a third of our used clothing is recovered for reuse and recycling, meaning the majority is still landfilled or sent to an Energy Recovery Facility.

“Donating textiles to The Salvation Army helps raise money for their charitable work and reduces the amount of waste disposed of in Devon and Torbay.”