Textiles account for 5% of landfill space—and clothing made with polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose. Massachusetts tackled the problem by banning disposal of clothing and fabrics in 2022. And Infinite Threads, a spinoff of the Undergraduate Association Sustainability Committee, is addressing it by collecting lightly used clothing from the MIT community and selling it for $2 to $6 per item at popup sales held several times each semester.
“Our goal is simple: We want to keep clothing out of landfills,” says Cameron Dougal ’25, who led the effort with Erin Hovendon ’26 in 2024–’25. That year, the group sold over 1,000 items and gave about 750 pounds of unsold goods to Helpsy, an organization that collects used clothing for resale and recycling. Infinite Threads uses proceeds from its sales to pay student workers and to rent a U-Haul to bring clothing to the popups.
SARAH FOOTE
In addition to helping the planet, offering affordable clothing options generates a lot of positive feedback on campus. “I love hearing from students that they got clothing items they now wear frequently from one of our sales,” says Hovendon.
Infinite Threads also gives away leftover T-shirts from residence hall events and career fairs, which Dougal says demonstrates the importance of a hyperlocal reuse ecosystem. “As soon as these types of items leave campus,” he says, “there is a much lower chance that they will find a new home.”