This project was led by students in Grade 11 & 12 with the aim of raising awareness on sustainable consumption and its link to SDG goal 12. Clothes were collected through drives, then sorted and some were transformed into bags that were sold at the school’s Winter Festival. The students also visited the Thrift For Good organization, which advocates for sustainability through recycled clothing sales and charitable donations. They discovered the innovative ways to recycle even damaged clothing and witnessed the positive impact it can have on other communities. The visit to Thrift For Good gave the students a more meaningful understanding of sustainability.
Student Reflection:
As a part of service learning and CAS, a few grade 11s and 12s worked together to collect and up-cycle clothes. The aim of the thrift store/up-cycling project was to inform the school community about the importance of sustainable consumption, related to SDG goal 12. Clothing drives were held in order to collect the clothes. From there, the clothes were organized and a few items were up-cycled and turned into bags. These bags were sold at the school’s Winter Festival and some information on fast fashion was there for anyone interested.
In order to gain a better understanding of how sustainability can be incorporated into a healthy, ethical business figure, these students also had an opportunity to visit Thrift For Good; an organization that spreads awareness on the impact of fast fashion by using their store to sell recycled clothes. Thrift For Good also donates towards different charities and focuses on up-cycling clothes rather than throwing them away. During this trip, we learnt that one of the ways these clothes (even damaged ones) could be used fully is by using these materials for furniture stuffings. This illustrated the creativity and problem solving that was present in trying to recycle and also showed that their organization is focused solely on sustainability. During this trip the founder of Thrift For Good informed us of how these donations will also be used. They showed us projects that their donations had contributed to. This put things into a better perspective and showed how detrimental their acts of recycling are in regards to other communities around the world. An example of a project that they worked on is donating money to orphanages and schools in Nepal!
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