A COMPANY that raises funds by taking in unwanted items of clothing has celebrated a major milestone.

Northallerton-based Bag2School was set up in 2001 and has now paid out a total of £6m to schools across the UK.

To mark the occasion, staff joined Sunderland FC chairman Niall Quinn at the indoor soccer academy Soccarena in County Durham.

And young soccer enthusiasts joined in the fun in recognition of the fact that Bag2School is a major sponsor for the academy development.

The company runs a scheme which involves pupils and parents sorting through their wardrobes and cupboards and donating unwanted items to their school.

It pays schools by the total weight collected, currently £400 a tonne, with 76 per cent of gross turnover going back to them.

All the clothes collected are sold, either sorted or unsorted, to importers and wholesalers in countries throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.

Bag2School was the brainchild of Marcus Fitch-Peyton who recruited retired detective Ted Childs to help set up the business in 2001.

Mr Childs said: "Unwanted textiles and clothes is a resource that every family has and according to statistics, 1.2m tonnes enters the household waste stream going to landfill every year. Bag2school’s simple message is don’t throw that funding away."

To date, more than 20,000 schools across the UK have entered into fundraising partnerships with Bag2School, many staging collections every term.

There are over 12,000 collections a year with 2m bags collected and sold on, which represented over 5,000 tonnes of textiles in 2008.

The company now has spin-off operations in the Netherlands and the USA.

For more information visit www.bag2school.com