Brooks Secondary School’s environmental club organized and held a clothing exchange to promote sustainability and reduce clothing waste.
The clothing exchange at the qathet region school was held on December 12, and according to environmental club leader Safiyah Dyck, the initiative grew out of club members attending a climate conference on Vancouver Island, where some of the island participants were talking about clothing swaps they had done at their school.
“We thought it was a really good idea,” said Dyck. “So, we started organizing one at the beginning of November, putting out advertising.
“We indicated that anyone who wanted to bring in used clothes, such as clothing that doesn’t fit them anymore, they could put them in our donation box. In less than two weeks, we had hundreds and hundreds of clothing items.”
Dyck said there is a huge problem with clothes being thrown out.
“We really wanted to put an emphasis on how we can reuse clothes and give away our clothes that we don’t like anymore, or don’t fit us, so they can have a new life,” said Dyck.
She said another beneficial feature of the clothing exchange is that a lot of students don’t have the money to buy new clothes.
“So, this is not only a way for kids to find something fun for them, but it is also a way for people who don’t have access to buy new articles of clothing all the time, to find a couple of items that are for free,” said Dyck. “We have never done anything like this before at Brooks, so we had no idea of what to expect. Within the first day, the bin was heaping full of bags and bags of clothes. We’ve had to empty it three times. We had no idea of how it was going to turn out and we were really surprised.”
Dyck said there were clothing items for everybody, with a wide range of sizes, and so many different types of clothing and styles. She said the environmental club is pleased that these clothing items are not going to landfill, but instead, are being repurposed.
Whatever is not claimed at the clothing exchange will likely go to the local thrift stores, according to Dyck.
She said the students coming through the clothing exchange were super-enthusiastic and that they were claiming a wide variety of items, ranging from sweaters, pants, shirts, tank tops, shorts, dresses, skirts and even shoes and bags.
“There’s just so many types of clothes,” added Dyck. “We are super-excited about how the clothing exchange has worked out.”
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