Five Reasons Why Thrift Shopping is Saving the World

If you feel like anything less than a superhero each time you step into a thrift store
then you are seriously underestimating your world-saving potential. Most people who shop
at second-hand stores do it because they want more bang for their buck. Little do they
know that they are also contributing to the movement against consumerism, needless waste, and
unsustainable agriculture! Here are some of the many ways thrifting benefits us as individuals, as
a society, and our environment:

 

1. Stops The Demand For More

When we buy new products, appliances, electronics, home decor, clothing, even if we donate the old things, we are creating a demand for more new products. While the old products that are still perfectly functional get tossed into landfills. The United States is the #1 trash-producing country in the world. We produce approximately 1,609 pounds of trash per person, per year. There are over 3,000 landfills and over 10,000 municipal dumps in America. We are literally taking up precious space on earth with giant holes in the ground for old “stuff” that we don’t want anymore.

By recognizing that we are in a vicious cycle of waste and consumerism and taking a stand by not buying into the “Keeping Up With the Joneses” mindset, you are helping to lower these statistics. If what you have still works great, keep it. If you need a new one, try to find it used or pre-owned before you shop new. Even if you can afford to buy 10 new ones, that doesn’t mean that you should. And before you throw ANYTHING away, ask yourself if there is anyone out there (anyone at all) that could get some more use out of it (even if its just for parts!).

 

2. Thrifting Eliminates Packaging Waste

While we are on the topic of needless trash, 65% of all household waste is packaging waste, making it 1/3 of the trash that is in American landfills. These are the boxes, bags, tags, and plastic wraps that come with every new purchase at a store. Approximately 10%
of the cost of a new product goes to the packaging. Simply put; if you buy something that’s already been opened and used by someone else, you are not paying for packaging, and you are not contributing packaging waste into the landfills. And while you should aim to bring your own bags to New and Resale shops, most thrift shops re-purpose plastic bags from other stores as opposed to producing their own! Reduce, Reuse, Relax!

 

3. COTTON CRISIS 

The more new clothing that we buy and throw out (or even donate) the more the demand for more new clothing and the demand for cotton increases. Approximately 1/2 of all textiles produced are made of cotton! While most people can agree that cotton is super comfy, the current production methods of cotton are not sustainable. With every 20,000 liters of water we can produce one kilogram of cotton, this is approximately one T-Shirt and one pair of jeans. This makes cotton one of largest users of water of all agricultural commodities.

Furthermore, World Wild Life website says,
“Conventional production practices for cotton involve the
application of substantial fertilizers and pesticides. Pesticides threaten the quality of soil and water, as well as the health of biodiversity in and downstream from the fields. Heavy use of pesticides also raises concern for the health of farm workers and nearby populations. Runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and minerals from cotton fields contaminates rivers, lakes, wetlands, and underground aquifers. These pollutants affect biodiversity directly by immediate toxicity or indirectly through long-term accumulation.”

Another great place that a friend showed me, for statistics on our water consumption is Waterfootprint.org

 

4. Specifically Ending the Demand for new Clothes

Along with the aforementioned cotton crisis, there are several reasons why you shouldn’t buy new clothing. If you’ve never shopped at a thrift store, I want you to know that you still get that super exciting, can’t wait to try it on, new-clothes feeling. Here in American (and most wealthy countries) that is the primary reason that most of us buy new clothes. Its not because we can no longer wear the clothing we already have, its because we are bored with it and want something new. New to you still feels new!

However, once bought, only 21% of annual clothing purchases stay in the home. The EPA says that 84% of discarded clothing goes to either a landfill or an incinerator. Americans throw away 68 pounds of clothing per person, per year. When I read this I thought,”Why are people not donating their old clothes?!” But that’s not always the case. Upon further research I found that only about 15% of the clothing donated to resale organizations are able to be resold. The rest are thrown out. In fact only One-Fifth of total donations (Not just clothing) to resale stores are actually put up for sale. This is why it is so important that you don’t just donate old things, but you shop second hand instead of new when you can.

5. Widespread Personal Happiness 

IT IS SO CHEAP! Obviously the greatest personal effect thrifting will have on your life is that you will save tons of money. Use this new found mula on experiences, you will never regret a trip with your family or a mini vacay away from your family, whatever floats your boat. Spend it on something you actually do need that maybe would otherwise be out of your budget. Or invest it. Or donate it. Maybe just live a bit more comfortably, order two appetizers next time you eat out. Treat Yo’self.
Also on the saving money topic, when you donate to non-profits, its tax deductible! As mentioned before, a big perk for me is that I get to try lots of different styles, without feeling guilty that I’ve wasted money on something I ultimately didn’t like. Just resale it, or donate it, and try again on something else. This goes for home decor as well.
Bring a home magazine (or just pop open your Pinterest app) in a thrift store and play hide and seek. I’ve found that its not very difficult to find cheap look-a-likes to designer products if you have a reference right in front of you and an open mind!

So Get Out There and Shop

Whatever your reservations are about thrift shopping; maybe you don’t want to feel cheap, maybe you get heeby-jeebies about wearing old clothes, maybe you just don’t want the hipsters to have been right about something, you should still give it a try! My favorite thing about buying thrift clothing is that I can try out all kinds of new styles and looks that I wouldn’t spend the money on if they were new. If I only have $40 to spend on clothing during this shopping trip, I’m not going to waste it on one new item that might not work out. But I’ll gladly buy two used items I’m comfortable with and two used items I’m curious about.

Remember that each time that you shop second-hand you are making a statement. You are taking a stand against consumerism, against blindly following marketing, against unsustainable production methods for only the sake of profit. You’re standing up for the future of the planet in your $4 jeans and you probably look fly as hell. So get out there and buy some old stuff and don’t forget to bring your own bag!

 

Stay thrifty,

Megan@ThriftingAdrift

Site Cites (See what I did there?)

• https://www.worldwildlife.org/
• https://www.usi.edu/recycle/solid-waste-landfill-facts/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
• https://www.epa.gov/
• https://www.narts.org/ (Narts sounds like something you’d say if you stumped your toe; “AH NARTS!”)