Campus and Community Policy, Community & Environmental Education, Consumption & Waste, Education & Awareness

I created this event because I was looking into buying new clothes when I transferred to a university to finish my degree. However, I didn't want to pay a lot of money for the clothes, nor throw any of my clothes away. I looked into the amount of textile waste that is generated and watched a documentary about fast fashion. I was awed. I started the base plan for this project and started working with my professor and another student to make this possible. There is two parts to this event, first there is the movie screening and second there is the Swap! The screening is the kickoff of the promotion for the Swap and will have panelists that will be a part of of a community discussion. The panelist will vary from farmers, economist, ethical fashion companies, second hand clothing stores, and more. The actual Swap-O-Rama is where the students will be able to go through the donated clothing and swap them for free! The main goal(s) of this project is to be zerowaste, encourage ethical fashion, and educate people on fast fashion. Throughout out the month of April, our sustainability union will be collecting donated clothing throughout campus with boxes that are scattered across the school. The hope is to educate people on the benefits of swapping clothes with peers and from keeping textiles out of the landfills. The amount of textile waste that is produced throughout the globe is momentous. The project focuses on the education of global impact from the textile industry and the different approaches we can create to diminish the amount of textliles that end up in the landfill, create better standards for the workers, and safer environmental conditions. 

1215 Houbolt Road
Joliet, IL 60431
United States

This project is designed to educate people on fast fashion and to choose ethical fashion while realizing there are other options than buying cheap clothing that will only last a week. Not to mention, I believe the screening of "True Cost" will show people the reality of the fashion industry and how detrimental the aftermath has on the workers, environment and the economy. The success of this project is going to measure by the turn out of the event and the interest people have in changing their consumption patterns. I hope that it will spark a big conversation between people in the community to realize the impact theier $5 t-shirt has on the environment, the textile worker who made the garment, and how the company is benefitting from the cheap and dangerous structure it is built on. 

The most challenging part of this project is putting all of the big pieces together. There is so many tiny parts of this project and not all of them are finalized yet, while the deadline is approaching soon. It takes a lot of people to make this event happen and the amount of collaboration in the community is immense.

Our main way of communicating about this event is through posters, word of mouth, and contacting a variety of people to promote our event. There has to be a connection between people and clothes therefore, I believe the main way of getting this idea across is in person and through powerful cinema. 

#againstfastfashion