For many of us, our closets serve not only as a place to hang our clothes but also as a storage space to house anything and everything we own. With everything that we pile in them, our closets can easily become crowded with old clothes that we’ve either outgrown or worn out until they never see the light of day again. It’s not until “spring cleaning,” or maybe when we go off to college, do we actually go through the wants, the needs and the things we can definitely get rid of. After this deep cleaning and organizing, we either give it to a Goodwill or Salvation Army, sell it to consignment stores, like Plato’s Closet, or just dump our old garments, leading them to pile up in landfills. But, what if there was a way to turn our old clothes into something useful for others in our community?
Thanks to the girls of AATCC, our old, ratty jeans will hold another purpose in making a difference for others. For those who don’t know, the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, known across campus as AATCC, is a national nonprofit organization that tests textiles and clothing, and one of the two major fashion clubs here at FSU. Widely known for their infamous fashion show, the girls of AATCC are hosting a denim drive sponsored the Blue Jeans Go Green program made by Cotton (The Fabric of Our Lives). With this program, the fashionable ladies of AATCC are taking their theme of sustainability to a new level. President Jessica Bachansingh, creator of Sitota Scarves, a sewing school for girls in Ethiopia, is all about sustainability, looking for making efficient and ethical choices for the fashion industry. Her sewing school goes back to her overarching idea behind her project for “Gifts for Confidence,” a program that aims for girls to make and wear a product that will make them feel confident.
Courtesy: The Fabric of Our Lives
With sustainability playing a major role in AATCC’s theme this year, it was important for the girls to find a program that would give back to the community. Luckily, teaming up with the Blue Jeans Go Green program will be able to do just that. Starting their training this week, the girls of AATCC will prepare and train girls for the drive. Tara Lawson-Corely, the PR Chair of AATCC, said, “We’re going to be placing bins all over campus, as well as personally picking up jeans from students and Tallahassee residents. Once we’ve collected the jeans, we will send them back to Cotton headquarters, and all of the materials collected will go towards insulation when building homes.”
The process behind the program is easy, and it all starts with you. Once you have outgrown your jeans or have worn them out to the point of no return, the Blue Jeans Go Green program urges you to recycle your old pair of jeans, keeping textiles and other materials out of landfills. Once the jeans are recycled, they will strip the denim back to its cotton fiber state and then upcycle that to create the insulation that will be used for homes in various communities across the country.
Courtesy: The Fabric of Our Lives
If you’d like to know more about the Blue Jeans Go Green program, visit their website to see what you can do to help, or join the girls of AATCC on September 20th at 5:30pm in the Globe as they prepare to train its members for their big Denim Drive!