Clothing swap promotes sustainable purchasing habits, redirects from fast fashion
REDUCING CLOTHING WASTE — EcoReps members Grace Freed, Cece Hogan and Miki Rogers (pictured left to right) volunteer at the Winter Clothing Swap hosted in Jamrich Hall. The swap provides students an alternative to fast fashion and encourages reducing and reusing clothing waste.
February 17, 2023
EcoReps hosted their winter Clothing Swap Wednesday, Feb. 15 in Jamrich Hall from 12 to 4 p.m.
EcoReps, NMU’s sustainability student organization, asked students via the Hub and an Instagram post on their account @nmuecoreps, to bring in clothes to swap in exchange for clothes left by other students. The exchange was open to students walking through Jamrich Hall on their way to classes and also allowed for students to take clothing items, even without donating.
The goal of the clothing swap was to reduce fast fashion consumption and give another option other than buying new clothes from these fast fashion companies.
“The clothing swap helps people to be more aware of their purchasing habits and redirect clothing from the waste stream. It’s also helping with just giving people an alternative,” Miki Rogers, an EcoReps member said. “It’s kind of like a mini thrift store.”
EcoReps hosts events like the clothing exchange to help in their mission of making campus more green.
“The swap brings awareness to the fact that a lot of these things would usually go to waste,” Rogers said. “When people are able to donate them and take them from one another, it adds to that cycle of reducing, reusing, recycling and just overall sustainability.”
EcoReps also focuses on intersectionality within sustainability, Rogers said. Recently the student organization helped the biology department in orchestrating Diversity in STEM week, a week that celebrated human diversity within the fields of STEM.
Currently, EcoReps are preparing their plans to organize the ninth annual Anderton’s Earth Week in April with DivestNMU.
