Ethical & Environmental Society help students in need at recent winter coats drive 

Students from the Ethical and Environmental Society are encouraging students to their give old clothes a new lease of life after hosting a winter coat clothes drive.

The Ethical and Environmental Society hosted the Winter Coats Drive on 16 February, encouraging students to donate their old winter clothes to help those in need.

Master of Public Health student Jessica Michael-Odobi, who helped organise the clothes drive, wanted to help students who were once in a similar position to her.

Jessica, who moved to Scotland from Nigeria in 2021, discovered that her coats from home may not be suitable for Scotland’s cold temperatures. Having to start her new weather-proof coat collection from scratch, Jessica realised how expensive winter coats could be and used this as inspiration to help future new students.

She explained: “First of all, we really wanted to promote clothes recycling and teach people how to recycle things properly. The idea of recycling clothing is really good because you could be allowing someone else to get some use out of what you decide to recycle.

The idea behind the clothes drive came about when we, as a society, realized that many students may own quite a lot of clothes which are still in good condition, but they don’t necessarily want to wear anymore. Rather than bin your unwanted clothing, why not recycle it?”

She added: “We decided ‘Let’s do a clothes drive’ which could solve different problems at the same time. On one hand, it could really help someone who perhaps can’t afford an expensive winter coat. On the other hand, it’s teaching people how your unwanted clothing could have a new purpose.”

The first Winter Coats Drive proved to be successful, with almost all donations gone to new homes by the end of the day. Looking to organise more in future, Jessica and the society want to encourage as many people as possible to donate their pre-loved fashion.

She said: “This was the first time that we tried organising a clothes drive, we didn’t really know what to expect! We received some feedback from the event which was good, as it allows us to better organise another clothes drive in the future.

Some people indicated that there wasn’t a lot of advertisement about the donation aspect of the clothes drive, but mainly the collection part of it. This shows us that people are really interested in the idea of donating clothing, but they were just looking for the right avenue to do that. This is something we’re really going to focus on for the next clothes drive.”

Despite being initially organised to help international students, the Ethical & Environmental Society want to raise awareness that the clothes drive is for everyone to use. Jessica explained: “Although it was initially focused on helping international students, the clothes drive is open for anyone who needs it.

We’re currently all going through a Cost of Living crisis, so something like this could really help a lot of people who are being affected by it. Everyone is welcome to be a part of it, whether they would like to donate or take something that they would need.

The Ethical & Environmental Society are really trying to make an impact, and based on the feedback, we feel like we have. We want to do more and opening up this platform to everyone will really help with that.”

She added: “If students would like to donate, they can visit the Reception Desk at the Students’ Association building and they will be happy to store the donations there. All of these donations will be stored and used in our next clothes drive, which we are hoping to organise again soon. In terms of donations, we are looking for good quality clothing and shoes – something good enough that it could be worn again. If we find that have so many donations that we can’t include them all at our next clothes drive, then we would choose a suitable charity that it could be donated to instead.”

Keep up to date with the Ethical & Environmental Society’s events by following their Instagram page

The Ethical & Environmental Society are also hosting Carbon Literacy Training, which is welcome to all students. Find out more by visiting the Ethical & Environmental Society page on the GCU Students' Association website