According to recent data collected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the annual amount of clothing and footwear waste generated was 13 million tons (4.4 percent of total solid waste). Over 9 million tons of this waste ended up in landfills. Often, when a simple repair, such as replacing a button, is all that is needed to restore a garment’s serviceability, the garment is disposed of, instead of repaired. This may be because the skill of sewing on a button may be unknown to the consumer. Without the knowledge or encouragement to fix an item of clothing, the wearer may opt to dispose of the item.

A clothing repair demonstration was featured on Thursday, April 14^th, as part of the 2022 2^nd Annual Waste Reduction Week sponsored by UK Recycling. A Scott County Certified Master Clothing Volunteer led the clothing repair demonstration. She helped six UK students repair and hem clothing, and taught each one how to properly sew on a button. Although this is a ‘small impact,’ it is important to note that the students expressed interest in learning how to sew. The change in behavior of the students is not currently known, but by repairing their clothing on that day in April, those items of clothing were diverted from a landfill (at least for the time being), and the students were encouraged to repair their clothing.