New thrift club strings together sustainability efforts through teen interest


From reusable straws to Greta Thunberg, teens are making strides towards a more sustainable future. This year, a group of seniors at RHS decided to take environmental consciousness into their own respective green thumbs.

Roseville High School’s Sustainability and Textiles Club, otherwise known as Thrift Club, is one of many new clubs on campus this year. Planting roots in their namesake, Sustainability and Textiles Club aims to combine the increasingly popular trend of thrifting and an awareness of environmentally sustainable principles. 

“Thrift Club is about expressing yourself as an individual, [especially] with kids [our age] getting into fashion,” said Vice-President of Sustainability and Textiles Club Eric Mayfield.


Despite being a new club, Sustainability and Textiles Club has threaded its way into Roseville High School’s campus culture seamlessly. Some events that have included clothing alterations, thrift trips, and clothing swaps. Through these various events, Sustainability and Textiles Club seeks to educate their members on the damaging nature of “fast fashion” and how it can impact the environment. Alterations, thrift trips, and clothing swaps are instead meant to encourage a more cyclical nature to a clothing’s lifespan. 

“In Thrift Club, the clothing swaps and stuff — of course it’s good that [the clothing] is cheap, but it’s not about that. It’s about sustainability,” said member Alina Beaman. “[The alternative] is to keep buying from the fast fashion industry and [contributing] to factories where people aren’t getting paid and aren’t treated right.”  

Through alteration events, members can mend or upcycle clothing through sewing or embroidering clothing. Members also participate in clothing swaps and thrift trips so as to either trade in or buy second hand clothing — elongating the lifespan of clothing and thus the materials that went into making them. 

The club, which meets every other Thursday, intends to integrate volunteer events at thrift stores into their future meetings.