Our Priorities

TLDR; we are a group of students committed to providing affordable pieces promoting self-expression with a sustainability lense. ​

We are committed to:

1. 100 % donation-based shopping experience
2. ​Real-world waste-reduction strategies
3. ​Affordability
4. ​Accessibility
5. Self and artistic expression

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We are a donation-based thrift store.
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​All items are donated by the Penn community, and bought by the Penn community.  Donations that cannot be sold are re-donated to organizations such as Goodwill, so no waste is generated in Penn Closet's operations. We have created a mini circular economy at Penn, improving chances that items used by the Penn Community will find a good second home to be reused rather than residing in a landfill or incinerator.

Why We Do What We Do

Some scary stats about U.S. clothing consumption, production and waste that motivate us.

The U.S. EPA estimates that in the U.S. alone...

• 25 billion pounds of textiles are generated per year, amounting to 82 pounds of textiles per U.S. resident per year.
• Textile waste occupies more than 5% of all landfill space.
• Only 15% of all post-consumer textile waste is recycled per year, leaving 85% in our landfills.
• 70 pounds per U.S. resident is sent to landfills every year.​​

As a group of young people, we are intensely motivated by the damage and destruction facing our planet. We saw that clothing was contributing. But self-expression is also incredibly important to us, so we figured we'd shoot for the best of both worlds.

Source: EPA.gov

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