Students support a circular economy on campus with thrifting app

Looking through her online networks, Sarah Chieng ‘23 couldn’t help but notice how many of her classmates were selling their clothes online. From dorm spam, to Instagram, and the MIT Free and for Sale Facebook Group, it seemed like everyone was thrifting their clothes virtually. Seeing so many outreach channels with the same goal gave Chieng an idea—what if there was one dedicated app for MIT students to buy and sell items like clothing in support of a circular economy.

To turn that idea into reality, Chieng teamed with fellow undergrad Trent Piercy ’23 and launched Thrifthouse, a web and mobile app for peer-to-peer thrifting through private campus-based communities like MIT. The app connects buyer and seller online by providing a platform to post items and securely and virtually negotiate a sale. “We thought it would be a great way to safely connect MIT students,” explains Chieng. “Meeting strangers to buy items can feel unsafe and during COVID people are more nervous to meet. Thrifthouse is exclusive to MIT students and offers that level of comfort.”

While the security of a campus-based customer base is one perk of the app, Chieng says the major motivation for the app is sustainability, noting that 2018 alone, the fashion industry accounted for 2.1 billion metric tons of the world's carbon emissions and studies estimate that one-third of all clothing items end up in a landfill less than one year after production. Chieng says the popularity of groups like Free and for Sale at MIT demonstrate students’ desire to be more sustainable in clothing choices, and Thrifthouse aims to make that easier.

Thrifthouse joins other reuse and resale resources on campus like Choose to Reuse, a reuse community currently on hiatus during the pandemic; and Rheaply, an online platform for items like lab equipment and furniture, as well as efforts by UA Sustain to establish a permanent brick and mortar thrift store on campus. For Thrifthouse, MIT is just the beginning. The startup, which is currently receiving support from Sandbox, hopes to expand to additional college campuses to support sustainable and circular thrifting beyond Cambridge. “Right now, we really want to grow it at MIT, but we’re already thinking about campuses to expand it to in support of sustainability,” says Chieng.