HFIS Environmental Club wants your old clothes!
As of Thursday, February 9, the Highland Falls Intermediate Club has facilitated the proper disposal of 1749 pounds of clothing and shoes; had four trees planted in their honor; saved 4.2 million gallons of water and prevented 26,234 pounds of carbon dioxide being released; and, potentially clothed 34.98 people.
How, you might ask? By encouraging local folks to be responsible in recycling their old clothes and shoes. And how did they do that? By working with the company USAGAIN to place two collection bins for those items at the HFIS.
They’re easy to spot; they’re in the dropoff/pickup circle at the school — they’re bright green and white. The bins are emptied every week, Environmental Club Advisor Andrew Krakowka said this week, and each week after pickup his students get an update on how much was collected, and what has happened to the materials.
“Clothing is ‘graded’ by the company,” he said. “The better graded clothes get sold, the next lower grade is turned into rags; and the lowest grade gets turned into insulation for homes.”
Krakowka, who teaches science to seventh and eighth graders at the HFIS, said something his Environmental Club students have learned through this venture is that the textile industry is second only to transportation when it comes to pollution.
The bins have only been in place since November, and the club members, all eighth graders — Bella Montellese, Sophie Lindberg, Will Cotter, Vincent Magallanes, Georgios Fatsis, Anna Wiery, Yasmine Morocho and Allison Aguilar — urge even more community members to take advantage of them. While none of them personally have put items into the bins, some say their moms have.
They also remind everyone to recycle at home, saying they all do.
And about those four trees mentioned in the first paragraph of this story? For every 400 pounds of clothing collected in these particular two bins, a tree is planted in a deforested area of the country. So far, according to the company website, since 2013, USAgain has partnered with Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization and over 1.3 million trees have been planted.
Surely that’s a good use of the clothes you no longer want!
