Swapping fast fashion for climate solutions

Written By Peter Allan

Ulwiana Mehta-Malhotra arranging items for a clothing swap. Photo by Maia Rayner

 

By Patricia Lane & Ulwiana Mehta-Malhotra

Ulwiana Mehta-Malhotra keeps clothing out of landfills and helps students stay hopeful. This 18-year-old from North Vancouver inspires highschool students to trade fast fashion for thrift shops and clothes swaps, and provides a newsletter that spreads good news about climate solutions.

Tell us about your projects.

Climate Conscious helps students understand the good they can do by resisting purchasing new clothes and donating what they don’t wear or need. Most of us in Canada have too many clothes. Globally, 85 per cent of all textiles go into landfills each year. Once students learn, there are easy ways to reduce the environmental damage caused by fast fashion, they often want to help.

I also help run Hope4Climate, providing middle and highschool students with good news stories about the environment and making it easy to add their own.

How did you get into these projects?

During the pandemic, I noticed how much food our household diverted from the landfill by composting, but realized we didn’t do it at school. When the lockdown ended, I started my middle school’s first classroom composting program. This got me thinking about other waste.

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Peter Allan
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