Authors: Thant Thura Zan, Ria Irma & Ask Nodtveidt
Thrifting is more popular among post-Millennial and Generation Z teenagers. If it helps to explain to people who don’t know, a thrift store (second-hand shop) is a place where you can buy second-hand appliances at low costs. What sets thrift store things apart is that they are old (but not damaged beyond use), mostly vintage designs, and cheap. Another thing is being Eco Friendly.
Sustainable Fashion & Thrifting
You will notice that in the international fashion industry, to sustain the clothes, they are making them with emphasis on not harming the environment in the production part. The point is that the world is pretty sick. Only if you protect the world around you will you live long. The weekly update collections of Fast Fashion Brands and clothing waste produced by the thousands and tens of thousands of clothing waste is becoming more and more.
There will be questions about what happened when they are produced. Believe it or not, it takes 1,800 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans at home. The production of one piece of cloth emits harmful gases equivalent to the fumes emitted by a vehicle traveling 80 miles. Most of the international clothing factories are located near streams and rivers. The chemicals that come out from there damage the water and soil as well as pollute the air. There is almost nothing good for the environment.
Why Thrifting?
Thrifting is compatible with two of the things that must be done to preserve the environment. Thrifting is going along the path of Reuse, Recycle, so if you love the world, do Thrifting. The fashion and textile industry may not be able to solve the problems completely, but in this way, we can reduce the carbon footprint as much as we can. There is no reason why small steps cannot add up to one big step.
When producing new clothes, new linens, and new natural resources, including water and energy, must be used. In addition, the clothes are worn once, after the end of the particular trend, it accumulates on the earth and releases greenhouse gases, causing global warming. When they wear thrift (second-hand) clothes, instead of piling up somewhere in the world, they circulate among these people. Therefore, compared to buying new clothes like fast fashion, buying old clothes is more environmentally friendly.
Other than the high price of really good fabrics, thrift stores are usually cheaper. From shirts, pants, shoes, hats, everything you need is available at affordable prices, and people from the grassroots to the middle class buy it. Because the resources that have already been extracted are returned to people through this thrift market, the use of thrift reduces the environmental impact to a certain extent.
The Illusion of Thrifting
But every time you buy thrift, you can’t say it’s environmentally friendly. The problem is that thrift also has a lot of products from fast fashion companies. Thrifting has become like fast fashion. Discarded fabrics end up in the second market, the thrift market. Since these fabrics are recycled, they are natural for the short term. But people may think about it cheaper and more fashionable, they buy more and more. Consumerism, which buys more than it needs, is a problem of running out of natural resources. After wearing it 1 or 2 times, throw it away when you don’t need it anymore. So, it has become an illusion of fast fashion. Thrift shopping is better than buying new if you really need it.
Making Informed Choices for a Sustainable Future
If you buy thrift, buy only what you really need, rather than buying more. If you need a blazer, buy a blazer. If you buy it because it’s cheap or beautiful, it’s not good for the environment. When you buy it, you can wear it in a variety of ways. Be sure to be patient and choose a design that will not be out of date (timeless). If you buy new, buy clothes that have the least impact on the environment. (For example, fashion produced by sustainable brands and local small businesses). If Someone had to answer the question, whether buying thrift clothes is beneficial or harmful for the environment is a matter of buyer’s choice. The thing is to be mindful and choose and buy carefully.
