How Can Thrifting Help Your Wardrobe and the Environment?
- Thrifting Project Team
- Jul 23, 2020
- 3 min read
Thrifting has been the talk of the town for over a decade, helping people buy jeans for half the price they originally saw at a fast brand store, get that one necklace they’ve been trying to find to give their outfit a bit more flare or even stopping by to
see what all the talk is about in these stores. People usually go in and buy whatever catches their eye or leave without purchasing anything that didn’t come to their interest (which is totally fine too!), but what people don’t seem to realize is what they have done after buying an item from their local thrift store; they’ve just decreased the amount of clothes that was going to the landfill each year.
Bringing a clothing item back to life can be more crucial than you probably realize. The average American person throws away 81 pounds of clothes each year . But if these go to donations, thrift stores, or just a local salvation army store, this number can decrease by 26 billion pounds, which would’ve initially gone to the landfill and contributed to the pounds of clothes that can be revived by recycling instead of throwing them away!
10%- 15% of clothes go to thrift stores: that is not nearly enough, especially if people do not see the importance in recycling textiles or donating to thrift stores who’ll openly take your clothes and revamp them throughout the thrifting process. Not only are the clothes going to landfills, but it’s also limiting the amount of natural resources, specifically water, that can be utilized on food instead of going to new clothing, which would be thrown away again following the next year when people are unsatisfied or not seeing the charm in them. This is a harmful cycle that continues to
repeat itself and will slowly get worse if people don’t grasp the idea of how detrimental this global issue can be. Even though hundreds of thousands of people are thrifting more frequently, we will always need more people to join in with this beneficial way to buy clothes that’ll help so many issues that are going on, from increase of landfills each year to nearly evaporating the whole Aral Sea.
Thrifting can become a handy tool when fashion trends change up every year or so, and creativity can be found in many spots while you are thrifting, from jeans and shirts to bags and jewelry! You can play around with different pieces of clothing you can find, discover a new variety of options, and become innovative with your style. Try on new pairs of jeans that you’ve been dying to wear or go all out with something that you don’t normally have around in your wardrobe! Thrifting is also good for your community, instead of buying online or purchasing from Fast Fashion brands, and waiting weeks or even months for that package to arrive from across the world, take a look & stop by a community thrift shop that may need your help!
Consider the upsides to thrifting too: you’re paying less money in purchasing
good finds, you are supporting your community by improving their reviews, you’re decreasing the amount of money your state has to pay to give your clothes to the landfill yearly & most importantly, you’re reducing the amount of cotton and water that will be used each year. Be part of the solution instead of feeding money to industries that are contributing to these issues. Feel free to read our other articles for ways to help and learn more about this global matter!
SOURCES/LEARN MORE
Images
Research
Comments