Frequently Asked Questions

We want to know your questions about what we do. Pop the question in the form below and we will respond with an answer here and in video on out social media platforms

Our FAQs

About our clothing

To ensure the correct fit, please determine your size requirement from the following chart:

 
3-4yrs
5-6yrs
7-8yrs
9-10yrs
11-12yrs
Height16″18″20″22″24″
Chest26″28″30″32″36″
Waist26″28″30″32″36″

Chest: Measure all round your chest just below your armpits.

Waist: Measure round your waistline, where your trousers would button up.

Height: Height of the shirt from neckline to waistline.

If you fall between the sizes, go for the larger of the two.

Every one of our customers is important to us. So you’re in safe hands – We’ll make sure it’s quick and easy to get your size right, no hassle guaranteed.

In a circular economy, products are designed from the start to be remade. That means materials flow back to the maker and the new product is made from the old product. It is different from recycling, or up-cycling, where material is turned into something different before it is then thrown away. A circular economy is infinite because by design the material flows in a loop. Teemill’s circular fashion page explains in more detail how it works.Teemill’s

Yes we can, but right now we’re focusing on remaking our own products. It’s important also to keep the materials stream pure and many other brands use plastic or semi synthetic materials – even recycled plastic – that shed micro-plastics into our oceans. Removing that is like taking an egg out of an omelette, whereas our products are made from natural materials in a way that is designed for easy re-manufacturing. We also need to find a way to make it worthwhile for us to do recycling for other brands who don’t currently pay for the waste they produce. We are going to do this soon, so watch this space. If you are a large brand that would like to access this service, please mail us using the contact form to stay updated on when this service will become available.

No, we use natural material. We make our products from organic cotton and the quality of organic cotton, and the way we design the products, means we are able to recycle the material without adding polyester.

You can head over to our circular fashion page which contains the instructions on how to send products back for recycling. When we receive your items back to our factory we’ll issue the store credit codes to you via email.

Yes, send back as many as you want. Every product we make is designed to be sent back to us once it has been worn out. There is a QR code on every wash care label which takes you to our circular fashion page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and follow the instructions to receive your returns label for sending items back to us. We’ll send you a £5 discount code for each item you return. To make the economics of recycling work, right now it’s only possible to use one code per order.

According to a carbon trust study, about 70% of the carbon emissions from a typical t-shirt are from washing and drying, while transport of goods is about a tenth of that. Our factory is powered by renewable energy too, so if you’re looking for CO2 savings, ease off the appliances and wash cool, hang dry.

Where our fabrics are dyed, the water is recovered, cleaned and recirculated then used again. It’s a closed-loop process. At the end, the water coming out of the filters and going back round to be reused again is crystal clear, literally clean enough to drink; which we show in this video. It is a closed loop system. Our organic cotton is grown in the North of India where monsoon rains provide the water needed to grow the crop. Plus every product we make is designed to come back to us when it’s worn out, and we make new products from the material we recover. The process where we remake material is itself renewable – our products are remade again and again – and the recycling process does not require water. You can learn more about how our products are made in our journey page.

By 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This is bad. Instead of plastic packaging, we use a rip and splash-proof mailer bag made out of paper. Big orders come in cardboard boxes, with paper-based tape.

As well as designing out plastic, we are attempting to design out waste. The two things are interconnected as we’ve found that we can use some of our waste material in our packaging.

Recently we have been working on new stickers and packaging that is made from the recycled organic cotton offcuts from t-shirt manufacturing.

  • Funky paper wrapping
  • Recycled material stickers
  • Plastic free packaging

The fashion economy is a linear economy where we take resources and turn it into waste. Lowering impact or doing less slows that down but it doesn’t change the outcome. Here’s a diagram:

Global material flows for clothing in 2015

As Ellen Macarthur Foundation say in their case study, Teemill is fundamentally different because circular design is applied at every stage.

A dump truck of textile waste enters landfill every second.
(Source: Stella MacCartney: One Garbage Truck of Textiles Wasted Every Second. Report Creates Vision For Change.)

100 billion items of clothing are made every year.
(Source: McKinsey: Style That’s Sustainable. A New Fast Fashion Formula.)

½ million tonnes of textile microplastics enters oceans worldwide every year.
(Source: International Union of Conservation of Nature. Primary Microplastics In The Oceans.)

1% of clothes are recycled effectively.
(Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation: A New Textile Economy Redesigning Fashion’s Future.)

3 out of 5 t-shirts made today will enter landfill within 12 months.
(Source: Mary Creagh. BBC: Fast Fashion Is Harming The Planet.)

Up to 64% of regular clothing is made of plastic.
(Source: Friends of the Earth. Microfibres: The Plastics In Our Clothes.)

The average number of times clothes are worn before being discarded has decreased by 36%.
(Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation: A New Textile Economy Redesigning Fashion’s Future.)

Why do we plant trees in Kenya?

Trees in tropical zones grow much faster than temperate zones. In fact, up to ten times as fast.

Of the many reasons we plant trees, mitigating climate chaos is very high on our agenda. Trees that grow this fast are nature’s best way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere.

Planting fruit and nut trees also helps the Kenyan farmers, who are living on the front line of climate catastrophe, to feed themselves and their families.

Donate. Yes it really can be that simple.

All charities need money to do what they do. Many also need volunteers. Most of the work that we do is to send money to run our projects in Kenya; to plant trees; to educate people; to build schools. Raising some money for us is by far the best way you can help.

Hop onto our Donate page and pop a few pounds into the pot. Alternatively you could fundraise for us; run an event; run a marathon; or host a screening of our documentary #TreesAreTheKey. Whatever you do to raise money, you can be sure it will be used to do a great deal of things in Kenya.

Skip to content