Introduction to the Swap Shop
Fife College’s Sustainability team piloted a Swap Shop at our Dunfermline and Glenrothes campuses in June 2023. We had held one-off swap shop events before, but this was our first attempt at creating a long-term project. Our fashion department donated a clothes rail and garments, and students designed a poster for the event. The pilot was a great success, reusing 63 items. Students and staff showed strong interest in a permanent Swap Shop space on campus, where donations could be dropped off and picked up all year-round.
Expanding the Swap Shop
Over the past year, we hosted 20 Swap Shop events at our campuses. These ran as part of bigger events including Freshers, ‘Get Ready for Xmas,’ Fife Climate Festival, Re-Freshers, Student Wellbeing Festival, and the Fife Climate Hub launch. We engaged with a total of 200 people at these events.
We now have a permanent Swap Shop space at our Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy campuses. We launched our Climate Hub in Dunfermline on April 25, with vegan food from our Carnegie Conference Centre. Fife Climate Hub and Greener Kirkcaldy joined us to promote their climate action activities in Fife. The Hub is open on Monday and Thursday lunchtimes and Tuesday evenings. The Climate Hub allows college members to browse the Swap Shop and drop off donations.
Our stock includes adult and children’s clothes, sportswear, accessories, and shoes. We have a temporary barrel in the canteen area at each campus for clothes donations from students and staff. Sometimes, we need to use the barrel for other purposes, so we are looking at buying branded donation bins for the project. We also received donations from external partners, including ‘Sustainable Style’ at the University of St Andrews.
Measuring Our Impact
We keep a record of the number and weight of the clothes we reuse. Using a methodology from WRAP, we calculate the carbon footprint of these clothes. This method adds up the total number of garments and multiplies this by the carbon footprint per garment type. The calculation considers production, transport, and use of items. The report, ‘A Carbon Footprint for UK Clothing and Opportunities for Savings,’ published by WRAP in 2009, provides the basis for our calculations.
In total, we have saved 2,400kg of carbon from entering the atmosphere and re-homed over 250 clothing items and accessories. We created communications and posters about fast fashion facts and ‘why we weigh your clothes’ to promote the environmental benefits of reusing clothes. To make the carbon savings more relatable, we translated the weight of carbon saved into equivalent weights of animals.
We also donated clothes to external partners, including Fife Young Carers, for ball events. The Swap Shop is now an established project at the college, with high engagement from various departments. Our Supported Learning and Performing Arts departments have contacted us to run specific Swap Shops for their events. For example, we are currently running a Swap Shop in advance of a student ceilidh ceremony.
Support and Future Plans
The Climate Action Fife fund has supported us in purchasing food, soft drinks, rails, weighing scales, and a Swap Shop banner for all our events. In the future, we want to buy Swap Shop t-shirts, branded donation bins, and have our Creative Industry students design tote bags for the project.
Our next steps for the Swap Shop campaign include promoting the Swap Shop externally and attending more community events, like ‘Tree in the Park’ at the end of May. We also plan to find a student intern to run the Swap Shop, as we have not yet found a volunteer. Lastly, we aim to set up a pop-up rail at Glenrothes campus, so that all three of our main campuses have access to this project.
The Fife College Swap Shop has made a significant impact, promoting sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. We look forward to continuing this project and expanding its reach, helping more people in our community.
Lucy Jackson, Fife College
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