Public Health Students’ App Wins National Contest to Fight Clothing Waste

Three University of Maryland undergraduates won first place in the Innovation Lab Pitch competition, hosted by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), with a plan to develop an app to combat overconsumption of clothes.

Sophomores Maria Lukz, Sofia Hasrat and Damilola Folorunso, all in the School of Public Health (SPH), were awarded a $1,500 prize after presenting their pitch for Thread Lightly to a panel of judges, all public health experts, on March 21.

“This award affirms the innovation and creativity of taking on a public health challenge. In this case, it was an environmental health challenge—the growing landfills and waste and materials that were super consumers,” said the trio’s mentor, SPH Professor of the Practice Woodie Kessel.

The prototype, which is meant to function as a social media platform, would allow users to post their used clothing online and trade them with other users, free of charge.

“The whole purpose of the app is to remove costs from the situation, because we're trying to promote people not purchasing more clothes when there's already so many clothes in circulation,” Lukz said. “Thread Lightly would help us rely on our community to help facilitate more sustainability, while creating more community in the process.”

The social nature of Thread Lightly in bringing communities together is meant to target loneliness among young adults. In their research, the students found that overconsumption is connected with mental health, and that people look for fulfillment in purchasing clothes when they feel loneliness, according to Folorunso.

“We hope to bring Thread Lightly to life on campus and achieve our overall goal of reducing overconsumption, with the benefit of relying on community and improving mental health through that process,” Folorunso said.