10 Reasons Why Thrift for Second-Hand Clothes is Better Than Buying New

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Fashion is one of the top ten biggest offenders of pollution. Fast fashion, has a particularly detrimental effect on the planet, creating a social norm of “throwaway” clothes.

• The average persons owns 22 items they have never worn.
• Less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new clothes.
• Approximately 75% of donated items end up in landfill.
• Half a million tonnes of plastic micro-fibres enter the ocean every year. That’s the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.
• Every second, 1 garbage truck of textile is sent to landfill or burned.
• There are over 40 million garment workers, and 85% of them are women. Workers often suffer poor pay and human rights violations.

Fast Fashion

Inexpensive, cheaply made clothing that lacks durability and quality. It is rapidly produced by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. It is also known for its exploitative pay and generally poor factory conditions.

One sure fire way to directly avoid the fast fashion problem is by buying second hand, better known as thrifting. When it comes to clothes shopping, nothing beats a perfect thrift find!

Buying Thrift Clothes…

1. Limits the amount of textile waste burned or sent to landfill.
2. Lowers your carbon footprint by saving resources.
3. Aids in water preservation, as growing plants and making fabric, especially cotton, is a water-intensive process.
4. Reduces chemical waste. Some clothing uses chemical dyes or synthetic fibres.
5. Helps your local community thrive. The money you spend goes into your local economy and sometimes helps to fund a charity.
6. Avoids increasing the negative social impacts of fast fashion on garment workers in developing countries.
7. Encourages recycling and reuse.
8. Saves money, as it is often a cheaper option.
9. Provides unique, and often high quality, items.
10. Decreases demand for new items and aids in rebelling against the throwaway society.

If you’re interested in learning more about the impacts of fast fashion, I highly recommend watching The True Cost, and reading about the most tragic fast fashion incident.

This post originally appeared on lowwasteplantbased.net

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