A SOCIAL enterprise aims to tackle waste by allowing parents to rent maternity and baby clothing.

SuperLooper offers a clothing library service in which pre-owned, quality clothing is circulated between members.

Founder Jenny Barrett has been trialling the service and said she is excited to launch SuperLooper properly in February for parents in Brighton and Hove and surrounding areas.

The 58-year-old, who started an organic children’s clothing company in 2010, said she was inspired by the idea of circular economies to set up the enterprise.

She said: “I already had a business called SuperNatural Organic Kids and Baby Clothing, producing clothes from organic cotton and cotton alternatives like bamboo.

“About three years ago I went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Brighton, and at that stage I was actually thinking about winding the business down, just because I felt the world doesn’t need any more baby clothing.

“I met Peter Desmond from Circular Brighton and Hove, which is all about keeping resources in use for as long as possible.

“Peter told me about a project in Denmark where parents could rent clothing and then swap items for the next size up.

“I just thought it was such a good idea, so I set up some focus groups to see if people would be interested here.”

Jenny organised meet-ups at her home in Walsingham Road in Hove, and found there was a lot of interest in the scheme.

She said: “I found that Brighton parents loved the idea of reducing waste, but they wanted to be able to choose the clothing themselves.

“They also really liked the social side of the meet-ups, and getting together to talk about the environmental side of things, as well as babies.

“Often people are emotionally attached to clothing, so they like the idea of the clothes being reused and going to good homes.”

When the scheme launches next month, subscribers will be able to choose items from the SuperLooper website.

For a monthly fee between £20 and £25, SuperLooper will offer subscribers up to ten items of basic clothing, as well as a choice of more specialist items, like dresses or trousers.

Jenny said: “According to my research, parents spend between £20 and £46 a month on clothing for their babies in the first two years, when they grow the fastest.

“Babies grow six to eight times in the first year and by the age of two they have doubled in clothing size, so a lot of clothing ends up in landfill.

“There are 183 million items of unused baby clothing stored in UK cupboards, which is enough for 250 items per newborn child each year.”

Jenny has a team of six volunteers helping her to organise the scheme, and they have all worked in the fashion industry.

She said: “They all wanted to do something positive, as fashion is such a wasteful industry.

“I call them my warriors – we are warriors not worriers, as we’re not worrying about the environment, we are doing something to help.

“I think people want to feel that they can do something – the David Attenborough effect has been huge.

“This is not going to change the world but it’s about changing the way people shop.”

So far Jenny has an inventory of around 1,000 garments, with items for every season.

Clothing will be posted to subscribers and donations can be made to drop-off points around Brighton.

She said: “Up until now it’s been people coming to my house to swap the clothes.

“We are going to keep that aspect of the scheme but the meet-ups won’t be about the swapping – they will be more about the social side and getting to know more about recycling.

“To keep the carbon footprint low we will be setting up a distribution system with local drop-off points for donations at places like Harriets of Hove.

“Now we just need to spread the word as much as possible to parents in Brighton and the surrounding areas.”

To find out more about the scheme, visit www.superlooperlife.com or find SuperLooper on Facebook and Instagram @SuperLooper.