In mid-October, the Computing Center at Cox Hall hosted X Fast Fashion, a clothing swap, putting the space to use in a new way. The swap supports the university wide initiative Climate@Emory, and a new student group, “./bin.”

Clothing was scattered across tables in the Computing Center’s gallery space, ready to be looked through by students committed to sustainability on campus. After a presentation on upcycling clothing and a discussion on waste in the fashion industry, attendees rummaged through the clothes to find new items for their closet.

The clothing wasn’t actually new – the swap followed a ‘bring one, take one’ format. A week before the event, students could drop off clothes for swapping at the Computing Center, or they could bring them to the event. Clothing leftover was donated to re:loom, an organization supporting the local refugee community. Over 150 items were diverted from landfills as a result, equalling almost 85-pounds worth of clothing.

Attended by roughly 40 students, the event was the first of its kind at the Computing Center. A new partnership was forged with the Emory Climate Analysis and Solutions team (ECAST), a part of the Climate@Emory initiative, and was rated a Gold Tier event by the Office of Sustainability. The event encouraged participation and served as a different kind of learning experience.

Computing Center Coordinator Amelia Frances was approached by Bryan Deleon-Vargas, a student staff member, about hosting the event. Bryan leads the upcycling student group “./bin” and intends to lead workshops in MAKEmory @ TechLab in the future. About the event, Bryan remarked, “We achieved a lot, and a lot of people signed up for our new group. It was very successful.”