CCHS Planet Green
On Monday, March 31 to Friday, April 4, the Planet Green Club will be hosting a clothing drive. This is an amazing opportunity to donate to those in need of clothes as the warmer months approach. Clothing will be donated to Ruth’s House in Haverhill and Lazarus House in Lawrence.
Donation boxes will be by the Main Office and Campus Ministry. They will be accepting donations of T-shirts, tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, shoes, and skirts. Underwear and socks will also be accepted.
However, everything that will be donated has to be new or slightly used (underwear and socks MUST be new). A rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t give it to a friend, don’t donate it. Volunteers are welcome and it will count for service hours.
This is also a good opportunity to spread awareness to a current fashion crisis: fast fashion. Fast fashion is clothing that is poorly made, and meant to fall apart so that you have to buy more.
However, the cheap materials are used to create inexpensive clothing that is more affordable to every class, making it popular. If you want to learn more about this issue, read Brooke Hillis’ article, linked here.
This year, fast fashion is Plant Green’s main focus. However, it isn’t the only problem that’s arrived from clothing. In Massachusetts, it is illegal to throw out textiles, yet nobody enforces it. According to Mass.org, five percent of the trash in Massachusetts are textiles. Not only that, but America produces 16 million tons of trash a year, which weighs about as much as 1,333,333 buses.
Clothing uses many essential resources in radical numbers when being made (University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center). Not only that, but “most cotton used to make clothing is genetically modified, which means the growing process is pesticide-intensive.” When used, pesticides can do many serious things, such as “contaminate soil, water, turf, and other vegetation….it can be a host of other organisms including birds, fish, beneficial insects, and non-target plants” (National Library of Medicine).
Donating clothing will reduce the amount of textiles being produced, which would benefit the environment because not as many harmful chemicals will be released.
Spreading awareness to this issue is vital because together, we can stop it. Please, donate any clothing that could use a new home. You will make someone’s day while also helping our planet.