Student Clothes Swap Extravaganza

During Sustainability Week at Sacred Heart, the Student Leadership Team is running a clothes swap event. The purpose of this event is to reduce textile waste and promote sustainability by giving pre-loved clothes a new home.

How it works:

• Gather your clothes: Clean out your wardrobe and gather the clothes you don’t wear anymore. We're accepting clothing and accessories like: scarves, hats, belts and shoes for ages 12-18.
• Drop off: Bring your clothes to the library before Friday, 30 August, and place them at the designated collection point. Items must be in good, clean condition.
• Shop: Browse through the fantastic collection of clothes and pick out new-to-you items. Each piece is just $1 during Sustainability Week!

All proceeds from the Clothes Swap will support sustainability initiatives at the College.

Why we are holding this event

“According to the most recent National Waste Report in 2020–21, Australia generated an estimated 860kt of textiles, leather and rubber waste. This is more than 16 times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A big part of this – about 300kt – is clothing waste. The average Australian buys 56 new items of clothing each year, which makes Australia the largest consumer of clothing in the world per capita (after the US). Over 1.4 billion units of new clothing come onto the Australian market each year, and over 200,000 tonnes of clothing end up in landfills around Australia every year – this is almost four times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A further 105,000 tonnes of used textiles are exported from Australia every year, most of which ends up as waste in developing nations in a practice that has been dubbed “waste colonisation”. (Gbor & Chollet, 2024 p.1).

Reference

Gbor, N. & Chollet, O. (2024). Textiles waste in Australia Reducing consumption and investing in circularity [Review of Textiles waste in Australia Reducing consumption and investing in circularity]. The Australia Institute. https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/The-Australia-Institute-Textiles-Waste-In-Australia-Web.pdf