Americans throw away about 17 million tons of clothing and textiles each year, and most of it ends up in landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The rise of fast fashion has made it easier to buy clothes cheaply and discard them quickly.
Inside a classroom in the basement of Wallace Library at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a group of students is taking a different approach.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon and they’re sitting at desks and on the floor, passing around needles and thread. Fabric scraps and half-finished projects are spread across the room…