Thinking about the environment:
Second-hand shopping
Each quarter we'll focus on a different topic through the lens of the impact on the environment.
This quarter we're looking at the impact of fast fashion and how you can reduce the cycle of clothes going to landfill
Fashion shouldn’t cost the Earth
The fashion industry is one of the world’s largest polluters, producing 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions, estimated to increase by 50% by 2030¹. The main contributor is fast fashion – the design, manufacturing, and marketing methods focused on rapidly producing high volumes of low-quality clothing, at low cost. The production of cotton clothes also consumes a lot of water, with the fashion industry producing 20% of total global water waste, the second highest industry worldwide. To make one pair of jeans can use up to 1,800 gallons of water, and it can take up to 2,700 litres of water to make one cotton shirt. Once those jeans and cotton t-shirts are discarded, they will then join the 21 billion tonnes of textiles that end up in landfills each year, taking up to 200+ years to decompose. Furthermore, fast fashion has led to a significant increase in fashion waste, with 12-15% of all fabric actually ending up as waste on the cutting room floor to either be incinerated or sent to landfill, rather than recycled. The UK alone throws away 350,000 tonnes of good quality clothes each year. That’s £140 million worth of used, but wearable, clothing going to waste².
Forward-thinking fashion
If ethics and sustainability are a concern but you don’t really know where to start, don’t worry! You are not alone, and people with a passion for fashion and the planet have been paving the way.
As consumers, there are some small steps we can take in order to help reduce carbon emissions and move towards a more sustainable fashion industry.
The best thing we can do for the planet when considering our next fashion purchase is to think about those three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. Cutting down on our consumption of new clothes and reusing clothes can make an impact on reducing our carbon footprint.
Second-hand shopping
If you don’t want to reuse what’s already in your wardrobe, an alternative is second-hand shopping. Let’s take a look at just a handful of options out there!
In-store purchases
For those who like a good old browse of the clothes rail – and a bargain – charity shops and thrift stores are the perfect place to try your luck and see what surprises you can find. With the environmental cost and poor ethical practises of fast fashion companies widely understood, the stigma surrounding second hand clothes shop purchases is fading, and rightly so, as items are still in a perfectly wearable condition. And even if you grab something without trying it on and it’s not right, your money hasn’t been wasted – you can see it as a donation and take the item back… and see what’s in store next time!
On-line purchases
Rummaging around second hand racks may not sound appealing to everyone so thankfully, purchasing pre-loved clothes is now easier than ever thanks to online thrift stores, covering all fashion lovers’ needs from affordable rentals to vintage purchases. Here are just a few second-hand thrift companies at your convenience: • Depop – originally a social network, Depop offers a mix of fast fashion brands, vintage pieces and independent sellers. With Depop’s fixed-price format you also know how much something is, which can make it easier to budget and also allows users to list their items which can then be purchased through PayPal.
• Vinted – a second-hand clothing app with service across Europe, the US and Canada, allowing consumers to buy, sell, and swap clothes, shoes, and accessories online.
• Thrift+ - through Thrift+ you can shop and donate the best second-hand clothes and accessories from high street to designer fashion. • Build a Bundle – created because of how quickly children grow out of their clothes. This site allows parents to buy children clothes second-hand in all ages and sizes. Other online second-hand options include the bigger corporate-owned sites like Facebook Market Place, ASOS Marketplace, Amazon and eBay.
Rentals
Thinking about a one-time use? A second-hand rental site could just be for you. Peer-to-peer rental companies allow people to browse through a selection of clothing which they can then rent for a fixed price and return after a selected period. Perfect for the single-use wear, saving the environment whilst also saving your pennies!
Out and about
Keep a look out for local community sales, fairs and clear-outs – you know what they say, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure! People clear out for all sorts of reasons, not just because their items are no longer wearable.
¹ https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente ²https://clothesaid.co.uk/about-us/facts-on-clothes-recycling/