Secondhand Clothes – Page 3

Benefits of Buying Secondhand Clothes - Home & Family — How Thrifting Is Good for the Planet

There’s something wonderful about heading to a thrift store in Lebanon, TN and finding a unique piece of clothing that fits your style perfectly. The “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” saying is quite truthful. Now more than ever, people are donating clothing, home goods, electronics, and other objects that are in terrific condition.

Whether they’re clearing out clutter or making room for more stuff, this propensity to buy and buy has made thrifting an even more rewarding habit for your wallet. But apart from the personal advantages of shopping secondhand, thrifting is a great benefit for the environment.

Put the “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan into even better practice—donate more and thrift often! Learn more about how thrifting is good for the planet below.

Keeps Clothes Out of Landfills

Think back to that reduce, reuse, recycle slogan we’ve all been taught since elementary school. When we were first taught this, it typically had to deal with plastics and paper.

Many people don’t realize that recycling incorporates more than the typical plastics and includes textile recycling as well. Just because you’re not putting your clothes in the blue bin and leaving them at the edge of the road doesn’t mean thrifting is not an important form of recycling.

One of thrifting’s biggest advantages for the planet is that it keeps clothes out of landfills. People now more than ever are recognizing that the clothes they no longer want will make much more of an impact when donated and brought to thrift stores, rather than tossed in the garbage. When clothes are thrown away, they sit in landfills for hundreds of years.

Especially now that a lot of clothing is made out of synthetic material that won’t degrade, these clothes tossed into landfills take up a vast amount of space and contribute to the greenhouse gases plaguing our planet. Even clothes made out of organic materials won’t biodegrade properly in landfills and will output methane gas.

When people donate clothes and shop secondhand, they’re playing a great role in keeping clothes out of landfills.

Contributes to Charities

Shopping secondhand also plays a role in boosting community development. Your money is typically used to help local charities and businesses, rather than multinational corporations that take advantage of the planet.

Better yet, these charities that the stores benefit will often help out community members in need or strive to help the planet. Think about it this way—when you shop secondhand, you’re supporting a business that strives to help others.

When we’re helping others, we’re helping the environment in some way as well. This contribution to charities can take the form of assisting those in need in the community and can help an organization that’s planting more trees or supporting third-world countries and their water sources.

Lowers Your Carbon Footprint

Another significant way thrifting is good for the planet is that it lowers your carbon footprint. This is another one of those phrases we were taught young—carbon footprint.

We often think that the only way we can do this is by biking to work instead of driving or by reducing our shower time. Though these are wonderful ways, thrifting is one of those steps to reducing our carbon footprint that doesn’t take much effort.

All it asks is that you head to a thrift store rather than engage in online or fast-fashion shopping! We mention fast fashion because now more than ever, a ton of energy goes into clothing manufacturing. The whole process—transportation of raw materials to the production processes and shipping to stores—takes up a plethora of energy and time.

The fashion industry is moving faster than ever, creating millions of clothing items every day to fill up the stores every week. When you buy secondhand, you’re preventing that massive waste of energy and resources on the production of new clothes.

Thrifting is an easy way to make a difference in your own carbon footprint and take the small steps to lower the world’s.

Helps Preserve Water

In a similar sense, thrifting helps preserve water. Like we’ve mentioned, clothing production is a process that takes up a lot of time and energy; it also uses a lot of water—water that we need dearly and are slowly running low on.

Water consumption is extremely high in every single stage of clothing production. Take a cotton T-shirt, for example. When made unsustainably, even simply growing one kilogram of cotton requires at least 10,000 liters of water.

That’s just the beginning of the production process. There’s wet processing and printing, packaging and transportation processes—all these steps add to the overall water consumption. When you shop secondhand, you’re playing a part in preserving water.

As we’ve stated, textile recycling is a part of the whole “reduce, reuse, recycle” mentality, and water preservation is just as important as that.

When you recycle clothing—either donating or buying secondhand—you’re preserving water. It’s just as important as driving less, eating green, and shutting off the faucet while you brush your teeth.

Reduces Chemical Pollution

Another great way that thrifting helps the planet is that it reduces the chemical pollution induced by creating and buying new clothes. Let’s think back to cotton—the production of cotton not only uses tons of water, but it’s also highly pesticide intensive.

This means that when cotton is produced and manufactured, it causes soil acidification and water contamination. And this is from material that many people consider sustainable. In general, textile-manufacturing processes involve the use of harmful dyes and crude oil by-products.

The process of creating and shipping new clothes contaminates surface and groundwater, pollutes the air, and so much more. Shopping secondhand begins to eliminate the constant chemical pollution that results from clothing production.

In general, when we take the time to shop the clothes that are readily available to us in secondhand and thrift stores, we’re not only finding those unique products that match our beautiful personalities, but we’re helping the planet as well.

There are so many wonderful benefits of thrift shopping, and when we take the time to visit and shop these special places, we’ll get to reap those rewards.

History of Secondhand Clothes | LoveToKnow — 9 Reasons Why Buying Secondhand Clothes is Awesome

There are plenty of reasons why you should buy secondhand clothing, many of which actually benefit you personally, no matter your lifestyle. Buying secondhand clothes also benefits the environment in a big way, making it a win-win.

Whether you’re unsure if buying secondhand clothes is for you, or maybe you just want to educate yourself of the perks, this post will open your mind to the idea of shopping for secondhand clothing. It might even make you excited to get to your nearest thrift store.

Let’s get to it! Here are some reasons why you should buy secondhand clothing.

Buying secondhand clothing saves money

As you probably already know, you can save an incredible amount of money shopping for secondhand clothes. You’ll never pay anywhere near full price, and this is great for when you find high-quality clothing from brand names that you know and trust.

The amount of savings will of course depend on the thrift shops in Lebanon, TN – they’re all different. So explore the secondhand shops in your area to see who has the best clothes/deals, or find other spots in your area to get secondhand items.

You extend a garment’s life-cycle

Do you have clothes in your wardrobe that are in great condition but you don’t wear them for whatever reason? Or maybe something that you wore often but is no longer your style, no longer fits, or you just don’t love it anymore?

You wouldn’t just throw away something that’s in perfectly good condition just because you don’t wear it anymore, right? Someone should get some use out of it. And chances are, this person is going to fall in love with it, just like you did.

Buying used promotes sustainable fashion

Another reason why you should buy secondhand clothing is that it promotes sustainable fashion. Buying secondhand clothing is a big part of the slow fashion movement and a key factor when you’re starting to create a sustainable wardrobe.

Sustainable fashion is all about slowing down in regards to fashion. It means wearing used clothing, buying clothing that was made sustainably and/or ethically, and with fabrics made from eco-materials like organic cotton, Tencel and hemp.

In other words, a sustainable wardrobe is filled with secondhand clothing and/or clothing made by slow fashion brands, both of which do wonders for the environment.

Secondhand clothing is unique

Majority of clothing that you will find in thrift stores are completely unique. The chances of there being two of the same item in the same thrift store or in other thrift stores are slim to none.

And chances are, you won’t be able to find the same piece ever again because they’re probably no longer being made, especially vintage clothing. So if you want one-of-a-kind clothing, shopping secondhand is a great way to get them.

Buying used clothing saves resources

When shopping for secondhand clothing, you’re saving resources and doing the environment a solid favor. This is because the resources have already been used to make the piece of clothing.

Instead of buying a new shirt or pair of pants that consumes resources to make it and distribute it to a store near you, buying used clothing doesn’t deplete any more resources.

Reduces fast fashion demand

When you purchase secondhand clothing instead of buying new from retailers, you’re reducing the demand for fast fashion. These days, fast fashion brands are just spitting out new, cheap clothing because a lot of people have adopted the mentality that clothes are easily discarded.

But, imagine if everyone started purchasing secondhand clothing or shopped slow fashion. These fast fashion companies would cease to exist, or they would have to conform to the new norm.

That’s why saying no to fast fashion and instead opting to build a more sustainable wardrobe is so important. As consumers, we help drive change!

Another man’s trash…

Is another man’s treasure. This saying holds true for secondhand clothing as well. I’ve come across countless pieces of secondhand clothes where my eyes pop open when finding something amazing. And then at a huge discount? It’s a great feeling.

Sometimes searching for secondhand clothing that you love will feel like finding a needle in a haystack, but that needle will turn out to be a diamond.

It’s easier to shop secondhand

In secondhand clothing stores, everything is usually sorted by size, making it a breeze when searching for clothes to buy. However, not all clothes fit equal, and you should still look at other sizes. I wouldn’t recommend trying clothes on at all thrift stores, just in case it wasn’t actually washed – especially if you’re not familiar with your thrift store’s practices.

Spotting a washer and dryer in a separate room in the store is usually a good indication that the clothes have been washed and then I feel comfortable trying on the clothes.

If you don’t want to try on clothes, take measurements like the shoulder width of a shirt you already have and use it as a guideline for when you’re shopping.

Secondhand clothes last longer

This may sound untrue but look at it this way. You can find a lot of clothes in thrift stores that are years old, especially if you’re in a vintage store. Some of these clothes were created before fast fashion started becoming so widespread. Since they are pre-fast fashion, they are better made and meant to stand the test of time.

Of course, you still have to know how to take care of your clothes in order to ensure their longevity, but the fact that these clothes are so well made, already makes clothes maintenance a lot easier.

Additionally, secondhand clothing lasts longer because used clothing has usually been washed a couple, if not dozens of times already. That means that any shrinking and fading that would have occurred, has already occurred.

Final thoughts on why buying secondhand clothing is awesome

So now you know the many benefits of buying secondhand clothing, both personal and environmental. It’s a great feeling shopping secondhand, knowing that you’re helping the environment, practicing slow fashion while also simplifying your life!