Thrifting is one upping Fast Fashion in every way.
By now, we have all heard of ‘recycled fashion’ AKA thrifting. In 2020, thrift stores have become a hotspot for unique finds in retail clothing. While getting outfits for cheap is the main attraction of thrifting, the environmental benefits seal the deal and save our earth.
Fast fashion is the cheap and quick production of the latest trendy clothing. Fast fashion is often looked down upon because of its exploitation of workers and major impact on the environment. The whole point of fast fashion is to put out as much trendy clothing quickly to keep up with the rapid change of fashion trends. To do this at the lowest price possible companies turn to cheap material, large machinery, and workers in countries with low wages like Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Guatemala to maintain a constant output of inexpensive clothing, on average causing these workers to be a part of the millions in poverty and harsh working conditions.
This swift and mass production of clothing in addition to the exploitation of oppressed workers, harms the environment. The reselling of clothing has proven to be better than the process of fast fashion. The fashion industry is the second largest polluter of clean water because of the use of cheap toxic textile dyes, because of this Greenpeace has been actively pushing for dangerous chemicals in supply chains to be removed by pressuring clothes brands through its detoxing fashion campaigns.
Due to the process of Fast fashion the clothes low quality material leads it to be thrown away. The Guardian reports, “More than 501m kg of unwanted clothing ends up in landfills across the nation each year. This doesn’t include the 94m kg exported overseas.” This is waste that could easily be prevented with the unique and trendy clothing alternative with less environmental damage and the same financial benefit: Recycled clothing. Thrifting decreases carbon footprints by less waste going into landfills and uses less resources.
Recycling has always been known as a good way to promote environmental sustainability because we are utilizing and reusing resources we already have instead of making new ones. A 2019 study by ThredUp, shows that Mille
nnials and Gen Z are now adopting second-hand clothing 2.5 times faster than other generations. Saving our earth and being fashionable while doing it is the new trend! So, say goodbye to the cons of fast fashion with thrifting.
Drekaria Miller 10/2020