The problem? 11.1 million tons of recyclable clothing, shoes, and other textiles end up in landfills every year. The solution? Instead of trashing old clothes, give them a second life by recycling them. By doing this, we can save water, energy, and landfill space.

With those ideas in mind, senior Yvonne Pham began a clothing drive for the whole North Penn community to donate their unwanted clothes, and from there she would personally donate the used threads to her local H&M.

But why did she get started with gathering the garments?
“I came across this clothing drive because it’s actually for a scholarship for college, but it’s a lottery. So for every single 50 pieces of clothing you donate, your name gets put in once to get pulled for the scholarship. The clothing drive is through and organization that’s called “Do Something” (www.dosoemthing.org) and basically it helps to just do something and help any cause.”

However, the scholarship is not the only reason Pham is organizing the collection. “I know it’s not exactly likely to get your name pulled, but I thought it’s a win-win situation. Whether or not I get the scholarship it’s for a good cause. I end up donating the clothes to H&M and they recycle the clothes or they use the fabrics for other clothing instead of dumping the clothes in landfills.”

The NPHS student gets the help of her family to gather the clothes that others give to her. The clothes are usually donated in huge trash bags, coming two at a time per person, leaving Pham with plenty of clothes of every kind. Pham says the buzz just keeps on coming, even though her original deadline for the collection is at the end of this month. She is moving the deadline to the end of May in hopes that it will encourage more people to donate “I made flyers for my mom to hang up at work and I’ve already been getting emails from people who work with her that they want to donate.

That’s why I want to extend the deadline because it’s going pretty well so maybe I can get even more clothes donated to the cause.”
For anyone who is interested in donating clothes to help Pham in achieving her goal of earning the scholarship, you can contact her by email at [email protected], through text, or through any of her friends. For more information on this collection and any others in our area, search dosomething.org.