For Essie Martin ’21, modeling a dress made from trash at the 13th annual Trashion Show was a win-win proposition.

“It’s fun, and it raises awareness about waste,” she says.

Martin’s outfit was made from discarded plastic and accessorized with plastic straws once sipped by �ֲ���ý students and by customers of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. “We collected the straws from trash bins for months,” she says.

For the prospective geology major from Newcastle, Maine, walking the runway matched her personal style. “It’s a fun way to be yourself on a stage. And since you’re wearing trash, it’s gonna be ridiculous no matter what you do!”

Photographs of the 2018 Trashion Show by Theophil Syslo.

Sophia Ball '21, Cassidy Martin '19, and Olivia McCulloch '21 prepare backstage before Martin walks the Trashion Show runway. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Backstage, Essie Martin '21 of Newscastle, Maine, adjusts a hair ornament made of plastic straws. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

A moment from the Trashion Show on Nov. 14, 2018.

Outfit designer Michael Somkuti '19 of Ambler, Pa., and model T.J. Emmerman '21 of New York City walk the runway at the end of the Trashion Show. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

A moment from the Trashion Show on Nov. 14, 2018.

The annual Trashion Show is produced by the student EcoReps and, like the prior 12 editions, this year’s was a “night of fun and ridiculousness and lovely outfits,” says Tom Twist, the college’s sustainability manager.

“But the underlying thing is, of course, the message: We’re still wasting a lot, and we want to increase awareness of that and of all the things �ֲ���ý is doing to be more sustainable.”

One of those EcoReps is Liv McCulloch ’21, an economics major from Sunderland, Mass. “Last year I just watched the show. This year, I wanted to get involved, and get my friends involved,” she says.

So McCulloch teamed up with Sophia Ball ’21, a psychology major from New Hope, Pa., to design a Wizard of Oz-themed outfit made from discarded Halloween costumes modeled by Cassidy Martin ’19, a European studies major from Wilmington, Del.

“People buy things on Halloween that they use once and throw away,” says Ball. “That was our inspiration.”

“Which means there were 35,000 of these disposable thunder stick noisemakers. Who knows what happened to them afterwards?”

For designer Michael Somkuti ’19, a mathematics major from Ambler, Pa., an interest in pro video gaming, or eSports, inspired his outfit.

Professional gaming “has been exploding in scale and viewership,” he says, pointing to a recent League of Legends World Championship event in South Korea that drew an audience of 17,000, who rocked the venue with inflatable noise makers throughout the competition.

“Which means there were 35,000 of these disposable thunder stick noisemakers,” he says. “Who knows what happened to them afterwards?”

Somkuti used similar sticks to make “a kind of jumpsuit” that was modeled by T.J. Emmerman ’21, a prospective politics major from New York City.

“One, it promotes an interest that I love,” says Somkuti. “And two, I hope that companies that promote eSports will think about their own environmental impact as they grow. Sustainability is important for corporations to keep in mind.”

Third, he adds, “I loved plastering the logo all over it because eSports are super in your face, so I wanted my outfit to be super in your face.”

Sustainability Manager Tom Twist and several EcoReps show off the college’s color-coded waste receptacles, installed in 2017. (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

• Question: How many pounds of food does Commons send to a local pig farmer each week? Answer: 3,900.
• Question: Approximately what percentage of waste does �ֲ���ý Dining divert from the landfill? Answer: 80 percent.

During the 2017 Trashion Show, Domi Frideger ’21 models an outfit designed by Sarah Sachs ’18 and Olivia LaMarche ’20. The outfit was meant to highlight that food and liquids don’t go with other recyclables. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Maybe you’ve heard of No-Shave November, during which facial hair becomes a symbol of support for men’s health awareness.

Well, at �ֲ���ý, mustache awareness faces competition this month from No Waste November, a series of events dedicated instead to environmental health — specifically curtailing how much waste goes to the Lewiston landfill, and broadly cultivating sustainable waste-disposal habits.

Designed by the student EcoRepos, this poster says what’s in store during No Waste November, including the Trashion Show on Nov. 15.

Featuring a “waste audit” on Nov. 12 and culminating on the 15th with the ever-popular Trashion Show, No Waste November is brought to you by Dining Services, the �ֲ���ý sustainability office, and that office’s student EcoReps.

Held in Commons’ Fireplace Lounge, a seven-hour clothing swap kicked off the series on Nov. 6. The idea, of course, was that students would bring in unwanted garments and, hopefully, take away new-to-them items that struck their fancy.

The holy grail of wardrobe optimization was an important impetus, but the swap also likely diverted a big box of idle apparel from the waste stream, as leftovers from the event will make an intermediate stop at the Trashion Show for further swappage and then end up at Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

Perhaps most important, though, the swap also called attention to the stunning amount of usable clothing that gets thrown away, and to the overall environmental impacts of the fashion industry.

“It’s kind of remarkable how much pollution comes out of it,” said Madeline McGonagle ’18 of Concord, N.H. She and Sophia Thayer ’18 of West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, both EcoReps, organized the swap.

In a 2016 article, reckoned that Americans toss out 14 million tons of clothing annually, or 80 pounds per person. The magazine noted that in 2012, 84 percent of unwanted clothes went into either an incinerator or a landfill.

“You know I love a good purple!” says Saleha Belgaumi ’18 of Karachi, Pakistan, as she chooses a shirt from the clothing swap in the Fireplace Lounge in Commons on Nov. 6. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

One factor driving this tidal wave of garments is the “fast fashion” industry, which, in conjunction with the digital acceleration of shopping habits, has deranged the traditional fashion calendar. The two traditional fashion seasons, fall-winter and spring-summer, have given way to a barrage of “micro-seasons.” (As many as 52, according to the .)

“That means you’re constantly buying and discarding clothing,” said Tom Twist, �ֲ���ý’ sustainability manager. “It’s pretty ridiculous.

“I don’t think a lot of �ֲ���ý students fall into that trap — they’re generally more thoughtful than that,” Twist said. (Three EcoReps that we talked to prefer to buy second-hand clothing.)

“This has been on the students’ radar for a while, and they’ve been looking for practical ways to do something about it,” Twist said. In fact, �ֲ���ý has held a number of clothing swaps, although the Nov. 6 event was the first structured as a daylong drop-in.

The busiest times for the swap, naturally, were around lunch and dinner. We dropped in around 1 p.m., when Thayer and another EcoRep, Adair Andre ’18 of Edina, Minn., were staffing the event.  (There are 32 EcoReps this year, an all-time high.)

By then there was a lull and we got to admire two of Andre’s finds, a scoop-neck sweater in soft gray cotton and a blue blouse that’s 100 percent, as the auctioneers say, in the silk.

Out of the bag

A waste audit held in 2009. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Up next for No Waste November is the waste audit on Nov. 12. EcoReps will visit �ֲ���ý’ 10 largest student residences and take away three bags of trash and three of recycling from each dorm. Sorting and weighing the contents, they’ll do an analysis to better understand residents’ habits and, by extension, the efficacy of college efforts to encourage more and better recycling.

“It’s going to be right in front of Commons,” said Hadley Moreau ’19 of Falmouth, Maine, one of the EcoReps organizing the audit. “The idea of that is to raise publicity — people walking into Commons will see us doing it.”

Twist hopes to find some functional answers in the 60 bags of refuse that the EcoReps will pick through. He’s wondering, for example, about the habit-forming power of waste curtailment measures taken last winter — a drive to replace paper coffee cups with personal reusable containers, and the deployment of waste receptacles that, among other refinements, added composting to the disposal choices.

“Are our efforts working — are we seeing an increase in recycling, based on all the marketing that we’re trying to do?” he wonders. “How much of the residence trash could have been recycled or composted? Are there things that we could be capturing that we’re not?”

Hopefully the audit itself will further those goals. As an EcoRep, Moreau has given sustainability presentations to many first-year students —work that has taught her that not everyone knows about practices that others take for granted.

Citing Maine’s returnable beverage-container program, she pointed out that people from other states “don’t know what returnables are. And some people don’t know what compost is. People come from different backgrounds.”

Goggles in hand, Elise Krims ’16 hits the 2015 Trashion Show runway wearing Kevin Tejada’s design “Phoenix Rising From the Ashes.” Tejada said of his creation, “If Barbarella and Madonna had a child, this would be her.” (Josh Kuckens/�ֲ���ý College)

She says, “I think environmentally conscious people sometimes assume that other people know more than they actually do.”

Finally, taking refuse from thrown-away to runway, the Trashion Show follows the Harvest Dinner on Nov. 15. Andre and Thayer, behind-the-scenes veterans of the show, have fond memories of this fashion extravaganza where the couture is fabricated from discarded teabag packets, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish bags, foil yogurt seals, magazines, coffee cups, and other salvage from the dustbin.

Thayer recalled a Miley Cyrus-style bubble miniskirt crafted from paper cups, and both students hailed the designs of Kevin Teijada ’17 as the ultimate in Trashion style — “amazing,” as Andre said, citing the 2015 ensemble “Phoenix Rising From the Ashes” that Tejada styled for model Elise Krims ’16. The outfit featured a bustier, collar, and goggles made from beverage cans, as well as fringed wings, repurposed from videotape, trailing from Krims’ otherwise bare arms.

While the basic spectacle will remain the same this year, the Trashion Show program will be tweaked a bit. The show will be held as usual amidst a cornucopia of desserts in the Gray Athletic Building, but Dining Services has taken steps to make the dessert service refuse-free. (Because who can refuse a delicious dessert?)

And Thayer noted that the EcoReps will strive to get the waste-reduction message of the show to a larger audience for a longer time. “We’re focused on events with impact,” she said — “continuing impact.”