On Friday, April 17th, in the Wold Center Atrium, the Union College Sustainability committee and the Entrepreneurs of the Nott student group hosted their Spring Thrift Event. In the preceding weeks, students had been coming together and donating their old clothes to support the event in the hopes that someone else would find some use in them. The event boasted a wide variety of clothes, from jeans to sweatshirts.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this particular event had not been able to happen for the past two years at Union. This event was focused on several aspects, including helping the local community. While Union Students were able to browse and exchange clothes in the event, one of the main goals was to gather clothes to be donated to local shelters and distribution centers, for people who are underserved in the community.

Another major aspect of this event was sustainability, and trying to prevent excess amounts of clothes from being thrown away. The event’s organizers wanted to raise awareness about the amount of clothes that are thrown away when something does not fit, or is no longer in style. Throughout the US, millions of tons of textile waste are thrown out, with much of it being made out of substances that take hundreds of years to fully break down.