Sustainable and Thrifty: Why You Should Buy Your Clothes Secondhand
There used to be a stigma attached to wearing secondhand clothes. It was embarrassing to admit that you shopped at thrift stores because that usually meant you couldn’t afford to buy new clothes. But now, thankfully, that stigma is pretty much gone.
Thrifty shopping suddenly became more fashionable and even a hobby for many people. It also comes with bragging rights. “Oh, I love that dress!” “Thanks, I got it at the thrift store for $7!”
Another plus, you can always find some really cute items from a few decades ago that are back in style! But besides saving money and finding vintage clothes, one of the biggest reasons you should shop secondhand is it is very good for the environment.
Why Buying Bad For Mother Earth?
What you may not realize is that fast fashion is responsible for a huge portion of waste in the US. In 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that 11.2 million tons of textile waste end up in landfills. That’s 22.4 billion pounds. I don’t know about you, but this is making my skin crawl.
All of that waste is caused by fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21, Zara, and H&M, are producing inexpensive, non-durable clothes multiple times a month to keep up with the trends. Thanks, but no thanks.
How Does Shopping Secondhand Help?
While there are plenty of brands out there that are using more sustainable ways to make clothes, buying secondhand is a big way to keep clothing out of landfills. It also extends the life of an average piece of clothing by more than two years!
To give you some perspective on that, if we extend the life of each piece of clothing by just 3 months, we could reduce fashion and textile waste by 5-10%! Imagine how much waste could be reduced if we extended the life of each piece of clothing by two years!
What Else Can We Do To Reduce Textile Waste?
You can help reduce textile waste even if you don’t stop secondhand by donating or selling old clothing. Every time you decide to clean out your closet, do NOT throw anything away. Take what you no longer want to a thrift or a consignment shop so you can help extend the life of your clothes, and let someone else benefit from your fabulous fashion sense.
However, if you have those ratty old t-shirts that you KNOW no one will take, recycle them! My mother used to cut those shirts up and use them as cleaning rags and it’s something I do now as well! You can also take your old clothes to a store that offers textile recycling or directly to a textile recycling center.
If you haven’t tried thrifting, trust me, you will be surprised at the things you can find. Cute vintage, or even something that was donated new! I have found things at thrift shops with the original tags still attached. Just another way you can adapt to a more sustainable lifestyle and help save our beautiful planet.