In her freshman year at Boston University, Iffany Zou’s professor prompted her to pursue a passion project. Zou, who had seen a mass amount of overconsumption on campus, knew immediately what she wanted to tackle.
She collected donated clothing in a bin outside of her Kilachand Hall dorm room. When the donations piled up, she invited her friends to look through them and take any articles they wanted. The small project, which Zou called Kilachand Closet, was the start of what would become BU Closet, a club that promotes sustainable fashion by organizing free clothing drives and swaps for the BU community.
“We had a really good turnout, just within our small community. So I was like, okay, why not try and expand this?” Zou said, now a senior double majoring in Economics and Environmental Analysis & Policy.
Over the next two years, Zou worked hard to rebrand and transition to BU Closet. She recruited members to join the team and get the word out about the club to the BU community. At the start of her senior year, BU Closet became an official club recognized by BU Student Activities with Zou spearheading the charge as president, Hannah Martin as vice president, Ria Shah as secretary, Alex Perera as treasurer, and a slate of 7 other executive board members.
Since then, the club has hosted 17 “swaps,” events where the club presents previously donated clothing back to BU community members, completely free of charge. Zou says that at each swap, between 200 and 500 items are picked up by students.
In total, Zou and BU Closet have prevented at least 3,400 items of clothing from ending up in landfills, a goal that is at the core of BU Closet’s purpose.
“There’s a lot of overconsumption on college campuses,” Zou said. “We want to take that problem and turn it into a solution by taking all the clothes that students don’t wear, that faculty don’t wear anymore, and then circulate it right back into the community, so that we’re reducing waste, but we’re also promoting accessible, sustainable clothing.”
BU Closet set out to combat “fast fashion,” a term that refers to “cheap and low-quality clothing that is rapidly produced and cycles in and out the market quickly to meet new trends.”
The fashion industry is detrimental to the environment in several ways. It is responsible for the depletion of non-renewable resources, the production of a large sum of carbon emissions, and the use of massive amounts of water and energy. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the industry is responsible for about 2 to 8 percent of global carbon emissions and is the second largest consumer of water worldwide. To put things into perspective, 700 gallons of water are required to produce one cotton shirt, and 2,000 gallons are used to make a pair of jeans. Since the average American drinks 58 gallons of water per year, the amount of water used to produce a single pair of jeans is close to one person’s drinking water for 35 years.
Additionally, out of the 100 billion garments produced globally each year, 92 million tons end up in landfills. However large that number is, the volume of fast fashion waste will only grow if no action is taken to confront the issue. If nothing is done to reduce the amount of fast fashion waste, emissions produced from the industry are expected to shoot up by 50 percent by 2030.
College students are no strangers to the fast fashion fad. According to a Gen Z Fast Fashion Report conducted by ThredUp and GlobalData, 72 percent of college students say they purchased fast fashion in 2022. Additionally, one in three Gen Z say they feel addicted to fast fashion. There is some hope, though, as the same report shows that 51 percent of college students want to quit or shop less fast fashion and 65 percent say they want to shop for clothes more sustainably.
BU Closet provides an outlet for sustainable fashion-seeking students at BU. In addition to the environmental aspect, BU Closet takes action against the social ramifications of the fast fashion industry.
Zou said, “What my catalyst was, that made me want to do something about it, was the humanitarian side. Fast fashion has a huge environmental impact, but I think learning about the social impact, and getting to an age where I can empathize with the social impact, was what struck me.”
Less than 2 percent of the 75 million clothing factory workers worldwide earn a living wage, according to the Lowest Wage Challenge campaign. Additionally, workers in the fashion industry, who are predominantly women, often endure unsafe working conditions and extremely long hours.
After learning about the harsh conditions of the fast fashion industry, Zou was inspired to promote sustainable fashion.
“I think that is just the part that gets me the most. Like, the environment is huge. But knowing that there are people behind the cheap cost of our clothing too,” said Zou.
Fueled by their purpose, BU Closet’s entire team puts their efforts into planning and carrying out a swap. Zou explained that the first step is organizing a clothing drive and collecting donations from BU students and staff members, which is run primarily by the club’s events team. Next, an outreach team connects with clubs and students. Then, a marketing team creates graphics and advertisements for the swap.
For the swap itself, the team comes together to organize volunteers, bring clothing to the swap location, and keep track of attendees and the amount of clothing items that are picked up. In addition to free clothes, free food is provided for attendees as well.
“We try to make it like an event, not just like a come and go, but a come stay and take your time, listen to some music and eat some food,” said Zou.
Starting with a small project run from her dorm room, Zou has watched BU Closet grow for years. After she graduates this spring, she hopes that the club will only expand.
Zou said, “I would just love for BU Closet to grow and reach more and more people who need it.”
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Fast facts: Data on water consumption. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/php/data-research/fast-facts-water-consumption.html
Fashion Industry, UN Pursue Climate Action for Sustainable Development. Unfccc.int. (2018, January 22). https://unfccc.int/news/fashion-industry-un-pursue-climate-action-for-sustainable-development
Global Fashion Industry Statistics. FashionUnited. (n.d.). https://fashionunited.com/statistics/global-fashion-industry-statistics
Google. (n.d.). 2022-genZFastFashionReport.pdf. Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/19nfQvyT5BrB-Dm5b0I7x-NKar22mIUj7/view
Igini, M. (2024, May 30). 10 concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/
Lai, O. (2024, March 4). Explainer: What is fast fashion?. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/what-is-fast-fashion/ UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion addresses damage of “fast fashion.” UN Environment. (n.d.).https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-alliance-sustainable-fashion-addresses-damage-fast-fashion#:~:text=UNEP/CYRIL%20VILLEMAIN,to%20governments%20to%20trigger%20policy.