High School Juniors Join Forces to Tackle Clothing Waste in Arlington

The Climate Leaders Fellowship guides high school students in researching climate change effects within their own communities and finding solutions they can implement locally. Students partner with local organizations to launch their projects and collaborate with other students around the world to achieve their goals.

The fellowship is offered as a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab and the Rustic Pathways Foundation.

Read about Keiran and Grant’s experiences below!

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Who are you? 

Keiran Gibbs and Grant Churchill. We are residents of Arlington, Virginia who are in our junior year of high school at Yorktown and Washington Liberty High School. We are passionate about aiding the environment as we participate and are leaders in our schools environmental clubs.

What specific problem were you addressing in your community?

A significant problem in our community (Arlington, Virginia, United States) is excessive waste in landfills. In fact, in the United States alone, 17 million tons of textile waste occur each year and 66% of all unwanted clothes are waste as opposed to recycling. Hence, our group of local students decided to tackle the problem of clothing waste and bring sustainability to our community.

What did you do for your project?

For our project, we hosted a clothing swap in which individuals could bring unwanted clothes and swap with other participants. This way, as opposed to throwing away unwanted clothes (creating even more waste), community members were introduced to a sustainable and enjoyable solution. As there were many excess clothes leftover, we donated the remaining items to a local clothing drive organization referred to as Clothesline Arlington.

What type of contributions did you collect?

We collected clothing items, specifically those useful in the spring and summer, that were in decent condition to be comfortably worn again.

Where did you do it?

The clothing drive boxes and swaps themselves took place at two public high schools in Arlington, Virginia. The remaining clothing donations were brought to a local Clothesline Arlington location.

Which groups of people did you try to get to engage with your project?

We tried to engage high school students with our project by conducting clothing drives and swaps during school hours at our local high schools. Additionally, we promoted this project around schools through online websites, social media platforms, and flyers.

Why did you pursue this project? 

To bring awareness to how resource intensive clothing is, because it is a silent contributor to the impending crisis that is climate change.

What were the results? 

We collected 7 bags worth of clothing donations.

What partner organization did you contribute to?

We partnered with a nonprofit known as the Arlington Clothesline whose mission is to collect new and clean, gently used quality clothing from the community, and distribute it free of charge to low-income school-aged students in our community. We proceeded to donate all of our proceeds to them.

How did participating in the Climate Leaders Fellowship make you feel? 

It made me feel accomplished and gratified as I finally felt like I was making a difference in my community and for the future of our planet. I am very proud of my results, and I plan to turn the clothing donation drive at my school into a regular occurrence.

Anything else you want to tell us about your project?

Our project broke the barriers of the rival schools: Yorktown and Washington Liberty. We coordinated with one another to maximize the results of the clothing drive so that we can reduce the number of clothing items that end up in the landfill.