Thrifting: Its all the rage. It seems like everyone and their mother are thrifting these days.
Google the word, and you’ll find countless YouTube videos and fashion blogs on the topic. For a lot of people thrifting is the best option out there, but there has been recent controversy over it because for some, thrifting is the only option out there.
The main argument people have with thrifting is that it takes away clothes from those
who need it. This is especially viewed as a problem with plus sized clothing. Many people thrift plus sized clothes and then alter them to create a new, up-cycled piece of clothing. The people who do this prefer the plus sized clothes because it gives them more fabric to work with. The problem is that plus sized clothes are already rare in thrift stores. Although this is a valid problem that shoppers should keep in mind when going on their next thrifting spree, it is not a reason for thrifting to be deemed as “bad.”
In addition, shopping at thrift stores is good for the community. Most thrift stores give
back to the community. Goodwill for example give 87 cents for every dollar spent back to its
local community. Thrift stores also give jobs to those in need. Savers does this and helps people develop themselves and their skills in order to grow more successful. Goodwill also gives jobs; according to their website their purpose is “to help people overcome challenges to build skills, find jobs and grow their careers through the power of work”.
Thrifting is also beneficial to the environment. According the United States
Environmental Protection agency, “Landfills received 11.2 million tons of MSW [Material
Specific Waste] textiles in 2017. This was 8 percent of all MSW landfilled.” When people donate clothes to secondhand stores, they are keeping their clothes out of landfills. Also, when people buy clothes from secondhand stores, they are buying less fast fashion merchandise. Fast fashion not only pollutes the earth in its production, but also ends up in landfills relatively quick due to changing trends and cheap materials.
Overall, thrifting has too many positive attributes to the local community and the
environment to ever be deemed as something inherently bad.
Vegan Doesn’t Mean Ethical - a very thought provoking article! It made me think about years ago when a lot of clothing was made of wool that would be sheared from an animal and it would grow back to be sheared again. Very thought provoking!