OXFORD, Ohio — As crate after crate stacks up at her small stand, Shana Rosenberg sorts through sweaters, coats, jeans and T-shirts of all sizes. It’s always a wide selection because she never knows what her visitors may need.
Rosenberg calls these stands clothing swaps, offering her collection of clothes for free or a small suggested donation of more clothing she can share because, for her, the priority is keeping these textiles out of the trash.
“I actually a few years ago got really interested in textile waste reduction because I found out how much ended up in a landfill,” Rosenberg said.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 84% of the clothing Americans buy will end up there, making up more than 5% of municipal waste. The volume has more than doubled since 1990.
All of that waste takes up to 200 years to decompose, often leaking dangerous chemicals from dyes into soil and water during the process. The United Nations Environment Program estimates the fashion industry is responsible for 2-8% of global carbon emissions.
Rosenberg blames a trend called “fast fashion” or cheap, trendy clothing made for increasingly short fashion seasons, often without the durability to last longer than a few months-worth of wears.
Thread Up Oxford formed as an alternative.
“There was a lot of Facebook conversation last year about a community-wide clothing swap,” Rosenberg said. “Then it kind of snowballed.”
She started with a clothing drive over the summer, asking for any unwanted textiles in any condition.
“Not just clothing — fabrics, scraps, bedding, blankets (and) just you know, tons and tons of stuff,” Rosenberg said.
By the end of the drive, Rosenberg had thousands of pounds of fabric to sort through. The good stuff, she sorted by size and style to go back out in her monthly clothing swaps. The rest she looked for alternative ways to put it to use.
“Whether that’s using really tiny scraps to stuff something with or I’ve given a lot of towels that are not in good shape to veterinary clinics,” she said.
Going through donations at her latest drive, Rosenberg showed an example a canvas bag with a few stains.
“Something like this I would probably look at it and say this is probably not something that I would give to folks in the community,” she said.
Though she said the bag has a lot worth keeping. Its leather straps were in perfectly good condition and so was the small dog decal sewn on the front.
“I would absolutely take this dog off to like use for some other up-cycling project,” she said.
Rosenberg gives away excess fabric to quilters and others interested in free material for sewing projects. Anything she can’t figure out how to repurpose or reuse, she takes to specialized recycling drop offs.
“For both fiber recycling and then the dish rag and cleaning cloth industry,” she said.
Only a few months old, Thread Up Oxford is still in its infancy. Rosenberg has taken on the effort full time, but she said the group still has a lot of room to grow. She said she’s in the process of applying to get 501c3 status so Thread Up Oxford can apply for grants and seek more partners.
Right now, she said most of the work the organization can do comes from people donating their time and services, otherwise, it comes out of her pocket.
“I know I’m going to take a loss for at least a year,” Rosenberg said.
Even so, she believes the mission is worthwhile, especially if she can spread awareness about textile waste throughout Butler County. That’s why at every swap, Rosenberg hands out flyers explaining Thread Up Oxford’s work and how anyone can help.
“Everything that we do we want to have this educational component and outreach component,” she said.
Thread Up Oxford plans to host clothing swaps at least once a month, while also organizing seasonal events throughout the community. Currently, the group is joining with the Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services mobile pantry services on the first Thursday of every month at the Parkview Arms Apartments.