Clothing Repair Clinic Opens in MLK’s Re-USE Store

The Berkeley ReUSE Repair Clinic is open for business once again, after a successful first semester in Spring 2019. 

The Repair Clinic is the latest step in ReUSE’s campaign to divert textiles from the landfill, and the model is wonderfully simple: drop off your ripped, button-less, or otherwise malfunctioning garments at the ReUSE Thrift Store; fill out a repair form with your name, number, and a description of the problems; and then pick them up when you get an email. The service is also completely free. 

The UC Berkeley ReUSE center began back in 2000 as a club operating out of the garage of the Martin Luther King building (MLK) on campus and has been effectively diverting reusable goods from landfills since. The organization has found success in holding fast to their two-part mission to (1) facilitate broad-scale reuse of goods and (2) to provide an affordable, accessible and sustainable resource for the campus community. Over the last two decades, ReUSE has evolved into a robust system for material reuse on the Berkeley campus. 

ReUSE Vice President and Repair Clinic Committee Chairperson Catherine Hsu is a third year student at UC Berkeley majoring in Political Science and Art Practice. Hsu reported that in the repair clinic’s first active semester, from mid-February to early May 2019, the repair clinic received fifty-two pounds of orders. Folks at the repair clinic are excited for this number to grow. 

When asked why her team would offer their skills for free Hsu responded with, “so that it’s a resource that everyone can use, regardless of their financial situation.” The Repair Clinic’s insistence on financial accessibility reflects a difficult part of the reuse process - whether or not items are made with reuse in mind, it is not always the cheapest or most convenient option for a consumer.

“...By making the service free, we hope to perpetuate the idea that sustainability should be as easy as possible, and that reducing waste shouldn’t cost more than creating it.”

By offering this service on campus, Hsu and the Repair Clinic team provide a free alternative to putting perfectly good, or worn but repairable clothing in the trash. Hsu hopes that even just the existence of ReUSE and the Repair Clinic “can make people think twice about the waste they generate.” 

If you are interested in learning clothing repair, perhaps for the sake of becoming more sustainable at home, you can. In our exchange, Hsu noted that the semesterly recruiting process for the repair committee seeks out students who have sewing skills, yes, but also those who want to learn. “At repair committee meetings, volunteers are taught how to sew, and once they get the hang of it, they start working on the actual repair clinic orders that come in,” said Hsu.

As a member of the UC Berkeley community, you may have noticed the “ReUSE Stations” - repositories made from repurposed bookshelves or empty booths - in some of the campus buildings. The booths have been around since the club’s founding, and are always stocked with second-hand school supplies for folks to take as they need. Eventually, the ReUSE Stations amassed more donated items than they had capacity for, so in 2015 ReUSE expanded. The main organ of UC Berkeley ReUSE today is their thrift shop in the basement of MLK. 

Walking into the store - a room smaller than most campus classrooms - is probably similar to walking through C.S. Lewis’s storied wardrobe. Relative to the rest of the MLK basement, the shop is otherworldly. It is lined with racks packed with quirky shirts, pants, dresses, and skirts; shelves spilling over with second hand sneakers; bins full of bras, socks, coats, text books, backpacks. A real life emporium, and it smells like clean laundry. 

Holding true to their imperative to be an affordable option for students, nothing in the thrift shop has a price tag higher than three dollars. Profits that the thrift shop earns are used for maintenance or donated to a charity chosen by volunteers and patrons. Among the organizations that have received ReUSE’s surplus funds in the past are the Students of Color Environmental Collective, California Fire Foundation, and the Berkeley Food and Housing Project.

Not only is the ReUSE thrift store an absolute vibe, but last school year (2017-2018) they processed 3,863 pounds of stuff. Meaning, the student volunteers in a Narnia-esque store in MLK turned that much would-be waste into useful, affordable goods. 

Since the store is run by volunteers the hours of operation are subject to change at any point, and they usually abide by Berkeley Time so check the schedule before going in. Also keep in mind that the people in the shop are not being paid for their time. They work the counter because they want to, which gives the otherwise mute MLK basement some vibrancy, and should inform how you treat the space.

If you are interested in other organizations of this ilk, the Bay Area is a great place to be. Straight down Telegraph Avenue in Temescal there is the East Bay Center For Creative Reuse, open seven days a week from 11am-6pm. Farther into Oakland there is Urban Ore, a three acre plot of land with an awesome selection of reused goods, from toilets to antique trinkets. For information on large scale waste management in California, Cal Recycle's website is a great resource, and for waste related news, tips and tricks, Stop Waste is another great, locally focused resource.