Yale-NUS’s Project Spiral Supports the New2U Thrift Shop

In my community at Yale-NUS, a fully residential liberal arts college, most of us are privileged enough to own many items, many of which are easily discarded as life goes on. During the periods when members of the community move out of college (namely final year students and international students) we see a lot of discarded items that are still in almost perfect condition. These items range from furniture to electronics to clothes and books.

Project Spiral (under student organisation I’dECO) was born out of the realisation of this issue and the need to inculcate a circular economy in Yale-NUS, in order to prevent and reduce the amount of consumption and waste that is generated by the community. We hope to be able to collect these discarded items in good condition, store them, and then sell them to incoming first years when the school year starts after the summer break. However, we received a surplus of clothes and books that the rest of the community did not need, and we realised that this may be because we are all privileged enough to access these material goods without the aid of Project Spiral, and a multitude of other reasons such as the nature of the fashion industry and consumerist culture. Therefore, we decided to donate these items to a responsible store like the New2U Thrift Shop that can help us ensure that these wonderful items don’t go to waste!

By Yeo Jing Ying
Yale-NUS Student