Have you ever been to The Gap, Old Navy, H&M, or Forever 21? Did you know that these stores produce clothing quickly and cheaply, so people will continue buying them as fast as they wear them? It’s called Fast Fashion, a type of clothing that moves quickly between consumers and producers. According to Business Insider 2019, the fashion industry produces 10% of all greenhouse gases and is the second largest consumer of all water supply. Mrs. Sheinwald, the Environmental Club advisor, stated, “The fashion industry is the major polluted industry in the world. The production of the cheap fast fashion clothing can contribute to many different types of environmental pollution such as water pollution, air pollution, and soil pollution.” 

In light of this, the Environmental Club, Ambassadors Club, and Girl’s Up Club created this concept together in November 2019. Moving forward to January 13, 2020 through January 31, 2020, the Environmental Club collected used clothing in the Commons. As a result, they gathered 20 bags of clothing; but there’s more. There was also sorting and swapping clothes on February 10, 2020 to February 13, 2020 in the Commons! In addition, students modeled those clothes in part of a fast fashion runway during that week! The leftovers are going to be exported to a local Farmingdale charity. 

Environmental Club memebrs Nicolas Ciarvanio and Zachary Suwalski talked about the inspiration behind this event: “We realized how expensive the clothes are to produce, how many resources are wasted by the people who throw out the clothing, and the initiatives to save more clothes, to make sure they are not wasted.”