Chatham Turns To Thrift Shops To Help Save The Planet

CHATHAM, NJ — Students at Chatham High School will be dressed for success in everything from dresses to button-down shirts thanks to community donations from their upcoming pop-up thrift shop for formal wear.

Cougar Couture, a pop-up thrifting event planned for Mar. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., aims to benefit the planet and our wallets while also adding a bit of fun and community connection.

The pop-up thrift store was set up by the Chatham High School Green Team and TEDxYouth@Chatham as a way to reduce clothing waste that ends up in landfills and to promote sustainable shopping.

All community members are welcome to attend the event, which will be held in the Chatham High School Library Media Center.

The public is invited to sell formal attire at Cougar Couture that is in good condition. Residents are urged to arrange for clothing drop off and tagging by contacting Shannon Falkner, a teacher at Chatham High School and the Green Team advisor, at sfalkner@chatham-nj.org. Tags will be provided by the school.

Sellers are not required to attend the Mar. 18 event in order to sell clothing, and instead will be given a tag for their garments with their name and Venmo information so that buyers can pay sellers directly.

If a buyer wishes to return a garment, the seller must be willing to fully refund any payments made. Sellers are also responsible for directly coordinating with buyers to arrange returns, the school said.

Garments Chatham High School students would like to have sellers bring in include the following:

• dresses (formal or semi-formal)
• dress pants (suit pants, khakis)
• jackets (blazers, suit jackets)
• collared shirts
• other dress shirts
• dress shoes
• ties
• belts

The Chatham High School Green Team hopes that this event will inspire the community to make small changes that benefit the planet, such as buying second-hand clothes and donating unwanted clothes rather than just tossing them out.

"Corporations are becoming increasingly aware of peoples’ desires for expression and individuality, creating a feedback loop of rapid consumerism as these trends fall in and out of style. This is what causes mass amounts of clothes to be bought, discarded, and left in landfills, only a few months after purchase," Chatham High School senior Jenna Hauser, wrote in this essay.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), discarded clothing is the most common source of textiles in municipal solid waste.

The EPA estimates that more than 34 billion pounds of used textiles are discarded in the United States each year. When divided by the population, this equates to more than 100 pounds of textile waste per person per year.