In Romania, only a little is said and known about the impact of textile waste. Our application aims to raise people’s awareness of the fact that old textiles can be either donated and reused by people in need or recycled.

The donations made through the application will be collected by charities and further donated to people in need from undeveloped areas. People will be encouraged to donate through discount vouchers offered by retailers.

Undeveloped areas of Romania - as it is a mobile application, we can reach a great amount of people.

Romania is among the countries with the highest poverty rates in Europe, over 35.7% of Romanians being affected. Romania also has the highest level of poor children on the continent, the percentage being directly related to a school drop-out rate of 18%. One of the reasons for school drop-out is also the fact that children do not have the clothes they need to go to school.

Although there are several charities which donate clothes to people in need, not enough people in Romania are encouraged to donate or ever aware of the statistics presented above.

Firstly, we are doing this for people that feel excluded from society because they are poor. The lack of clothes is among the reasons that prevent children from poor communities from going to school and thus increases the school drop-out rate.

Through our application, charities will be able to collect more clothes to be further donated to people in need and thus people from Romania will be able to contribute to reducing the school drop-out rate in their society.

Secondly, we are doing this for the donors, who will be able to actively contribute to make their community a better place, from the comfort of their home. They will feel that they are not alone, but part of a bigger community with the same goals – reduce poverty, reduce textile waste and protect the environment.

1. Develop the application – we already have an established partnership with a software development company that can deliver the product in 6 to 8 weeks; estimations were made based on the detailed workflows between the actors of the application.

2. Negotiate with retailers – we will negotiate with retailers to integrate them on the application. We will propose the retailers to offer discount vouchers for donors. We expect for retailers to be open in this matter as it is a win-win situation – they will be able to cultivate a positive brand image, as well as to get new customers;

3. Get in touch with charities – we will get in touch with charities to onboard them on the application. There are already plenty of charities in Romania that accept clothes donations.

1. The local community will be empowered by the fact that they will be able to constantly help other people in need and protect the environment all at the same time;

2. People will be able to see the impact they may have on their community and on the environment;

3. Retailers will work for the first time together with their clients as well as the charities in order to achieve a common goal – help our community and the world we live in;

4. Charities will have a more efficient tool to help them get clothes donations.

Our project will strengthen democracy and active citizenship as we envisage the following impact on our local community’s participation:
1.Individuals will have the chance to participate in and influence the development of their society:
- people will change their behavior and start donating clothes
- people will be, for the first time at a large scale, aware of the impact their donations may have on our society
- donors will be role-models for others, showing the easy way in which together we can make a change
2.Charities will act coordinated and together - they will have an efficient tool through which they can collect clothes, they will be more visible to people who want to enroll as volunteers
3.School dropout rate will be reduced - poor people will receive the clothes they need.

Growing up close to a poor neighborhood has given us a clear view on the large gap between social classes and the need for such a program. Multiple family members sharing the same clothes or wearing them repeatedly for days lead to severe bullying.

In our grown-ups life, being willing to donate clothes and not having the necessary clear and easy means to do so, has given us again a clear view of how important such an application would be.

We want to make a great change in how our society acts and thinks when it comes to textile reusing / recycling.

Large amounts of water and energy have made textile industry one of the most polluting and waste producing industries, while in Romania one of the reasons for school drop-out is children not having enough clothes to go to school.

1. Mobile application development, website: fixed costs - 10,000 EUR, recurrent costs (resources & administration) - 300 EUR /month
2. Application integration (retailers/charities on-boarding) – 800 EUR per integration (estimated 10 retailers and 10 charities in 6 months)
3. Technical security audit (GDPR purposes) – 3,500 EUR
4. Marketing costs – 1500 EUR/month
5. Copywriting – 500 EUR/month
6. SEO – 1,500 EUR
7. Personnel costs/other costs – 5,000 EUR

Total (6 months): 49,800 EUR

Any feedback on our idea is welcomed.