Over 11 million tons of textile waste are produced in the United States annually from the clothing industry. Fast fashion is the rapid production of low quality clothing to imitate fashion trends at a low price that ends up going into landfills most of the time. Not only does most of the clothing go into landfills, it requires a large amount of materials to produce them, especially water. Thrifting is a much more environmentally friendly shopping option for clothes as it recycles clothing, and does not throw them away. However, many people view thrifting as the “cheap option” and that there are only low quality outfits to choose from but that is simply not the case at least for Forge Thrifts.
“When I was younger, I definitely had a negative perspective on thrifting. I just thought it was something for lower class people and didn’t seem like something that I was ever going to do. But as I’ve grown and developed my personal style and just learned more about how thrifting has a positive impact on the world, I’ve definitely grown to love it and I recommend it for everybody. Whether you’re trying to just get a few new pieces or explain your style. It’s a great thing all around.” CFHS student, Oliver Noumbo (25), said.
Thrifting is also an activity that brings people together while contributing to a good cause to prevent more environmental harm. The cycling of clothes brings people closer as the community contributes and their clothes are being reused instead of going to waste.
“Since I was in high school, I always shopped at thrift stores. In the 1980s it was cool to be different and create your own style. By thrifting, I found cool ways that I could express myself without spending a lot of money. By getting something that someone else already owned, it didn’t bother me. I was preventing that from getting thrown into the rubbish bin. Everything that was donated came from the community and went right back to the community. By reusing and repurposing things, we don’t contribute to the harmful mass-production aspects of our society.” CFHS Learn & Serve and German teacher, Mr. Matthew Lentz, said.
In people’s experience of thrifting at Forge, they enjoy getting multiple new pieces for outfits with their friends during the school day.
“My favorite moment was just seeing how excited everybody was for it. My friend, Sean Okyne (25), had this giant trash bag of clothes. He just kept going and going. He loves thrifting. And personally, my favorite find was these corduroy pants I like to sew. So I know I’m going to be incorporating that into a piece by upcycling,” Oliver, said.
Learn and Serve is the class that maintains Forge Thrifts every year and Mr. Lentz is the new teacher for the class this year.
“This was a successful venture and I am very proud of the Learn and Serve students who made this happen. They had the idea and the motivation to do this and they have expressed how fulfilling it was. I think it would be a good idea to do an Autumn store as well as a Spring store. This way, we could possibly get more warm weather clothes to those in need.“ Mr. Lentz, said.
Suggestions are being taken into consideration of how to improve the shop so that more students make donations and collect clothes.
“I know there’s been previous years where we had shoes and jewelry, and I think we should continue to do that, just because I think that is one of the best parts about this, because jewelry, it’s hard to combine. I feel like you can get just so many unique things, especially when it’s coming from other people. You never know, which might find turns, like, from cultural background, stuff like that. So I would love to see more shoes” Oliver, said.
