{"id":300112,"date":"2026-02-24T18:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300112\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:08:13","slug":"on-the-up-northland-op-shops-turn-dumped-clothes-into-mattresses-for-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/300112\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Northland op shops turn dumped clothes into mattresses for families"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far 120 mattresses have been made, which will be distributed to families in need or sold at cost. <\/p>\n

The project came about after Cbec put a post on social media asking if op shops wanted to get involved. <\/p>\n

Hospice Mid-Northland chief executive Cristina Ross answered the call and promptly got other branches on board. <\/p>\n

Ross said charity op shops had increasingly become a \u201cdumping ground\u201d for clothes that couldn\u2019t be sold. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot that are marked, stained, torn, and not good for reselling,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe recently got a big box of dirty underwear, and a big black bag full of clothing and rat poo. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing thing; it\u2019s a national problem for a lot of charities.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now, instead of paying for skip bins or dropping items off at transfer stations, clothes are stripped of zips and buttons by volunteers, then put into large sheep-wool sacks, which Cbec collects every couple of weeks. <\/p>\n

The move is saving Hospice Mid-Northland, based in Kerikeri<\/a>, up to $300 a week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re filling about three sheep bags a week,\u201d Ross said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s expensive to get rid of things these days so op shops have become a dumping ground unfortunately. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to stop accepting clothing donations last week because we were so overwhelmed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to know they\u2019re getting re-utilised … rather than being dumped into landfill.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"HospiceHospice Mid-Northland had to temporarily stop accepting clothing donations due to having too much stock. Photo \/ Jenny Ling<\/p>\n

Cbec is a social enterprise that runs a range of business and environmental programmes in a bid to build sustainable local economies within Northland. <\/p>\n

Cbec\u2019s eco solutions manager Jo Shanks said the mattress project, done in partnership with Healthy Homes Tai Tokerau, received $150,000 in government funding for the first part of the trial, with Cbec funding the other half. <\/p>\n

The clothing is sorted into three lots according to fabric type: 80% were mixed textiles used for mattresses, 10% were pure polyester used for insulation, and 10% were pure wool, cotton, and silk, used for erosion matting. <\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Hospital is also on board, handing over disused \u201cblue wrap\u201d \u2013 polypropylene plastic sheeting used to wrap surgical instruments in operating rooms. <\/p>\n

A Health NZ spokeswoman said the material accounts for about nine tonnes of waste annually. <\/p>\n

\u201cThrough Cbec\u2019s programme, we are pleased to divert approximately seven tonnes of this material from landfill annually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shanks said the blue wrap was made into good-quality plastic boards for bathrooms and kitchens for iwi housing in Northland.<\/p>\n

Excess clothing was a \u201cmassive consumer problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The average charity<\/a> op shop was getting rid of five 240-litre bags of clothes per week, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s raising awareness of how wasteful the textile industry is. <\/p>\n

\u201cTextiles is the largest-growing waste stream in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to button down in New Zealand and realise there is a downside to unrestrained consumerism and it\u2019s Papat\u016b\u0101nuku that\u2019s paying the price.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shanks said she hoped the zero-waste project could be rolled out across New Zealand in the future.<\/p>\n

Hospice Mid-Northland and Cbec are looking for volunteers to help sort the clothing. <\/p>\n

If you can help, email info@hospicemn.org.nz<\/a> or visit www.cbec.co.nz.<\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So far 120 mattresses have been made, which will be distributed to families in need or sold at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1977,44997,20211,5988,2082,53660,82503,296,81775,2205,164880,5971,111,43,139,1067,69,90,123635,164881,54165,51212,1361,223,54,664,32951,46107,810,102],"class_list":["post-300112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-charity","tag-clothes","tag-dumped","tag-families","tag-for","tag-garments","tag-insulation","tag-into","tag-inundated","tag-involved","tag-mattresses","tag-need","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-op","tag-regionwide","tag-resale","tag-shops","tag-that","tag-the","tag-trial","tag-turn","tag-turns","tag-unfit","tag-up","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}