If you’re somebody who revolves around an eco-friendly lifestyle or even just getting started, one of the best things you can start doing is wearing used clothing.
Secondhand clothing benefits the environment in a variety of ways, that it really should be a go-to for anybody who’s shopping for an addition to their sustainable wardrobe.
Here are the environmental benefits of secondhand clothing.
1. Buying Used Clothes Reduces Textile Waste
There are a lot of ways that buying secondhand clothes reduces environmental impact, but one of the biggest is the fact that by reusing clothing, that’s less clothing that ends up in landfills.
There’s a lot of textile waste in the world, and many of these pieces of clothing don’t degrade quickly.
When you also consider the dyes used for many types of clothing, these dyes seep into the ground and waterways, contaminating them with toxic chemicals.
By buying secondhand clothing, you’re reducing the amount of textile waste in landfills and extending the lifecycle of these garments by giving them a spot in your wardrobe.
As a result, landfills won’t get bigger, and new landfill sites won’t be created.
2. Secondhand Clothing Reduces Water Pollution
As previously mentioned, many garments contain toxic chemicals that end up in our waterways during the manufacturing process or once they end up in landfills.
For example, there are insecticides and chemicals used during the production of cotton which enters the earth and ends up in our water streams.
Textile water pollution accounts for 20% of global industrial water pollution due to contaminants like dyes.
Secondhand clothing benefits that environment because instead of the pollution created to make the clothes, you’re reusing them, getting the most out of the garment as you can and making sure the resources used to make it more worth it.
3. Shopping Secondhand Saves Water
Did you know that one t-shirt takes 2,700 liters of water to make? That’s enough water for one person to drink for two and a half years!
So even if you’re trying to be sustainable regarding your clothing such as buying clothes made with an eco-friendly material like cotton, there are still some negative environmental consequences.
For example, cotton is a sustainable resource that won’t harm the earth when it decomposes (unless it contains dyes) but the amount of water it takes to make a piece of clothing from cotton also has a huge environmental impact.
Taking that into account, if you see a cotton shirt or sweater in a secondhand store, buy it (if you love it, of course.) Make all that water used to make it worth it.
Additionally, the fashion industry contributes to almost 20% of global waste water.
That’s a lot of wasted water on the hands of one industry, and what’s worse, these statistics have just been going up over the years since people are just buying more and more clothes.
4. Buying Used = Less Air Pollution
By not buying more clothes from fast fashion brands, you’re reducing the need for these businesses to produce more clothing, which causes air pollution to manufacture as well as distribute.
There are a lot of carbon emissions caused by the fashion industry, which contributes to global warming.
It’s estimated that 10% of all global emissions come from the fashion industry. Therefore, it’s extremely important that we try to change our clothes-shopping habits.
When you buy and wear used clothing, you’re reducing the need for these clothing industries to create new clothing and distribute it, which helps keep the air cleaner.
There’s also the fact that many clothes get incinerated instead of being reused. When certain types of clothes are burned, they release toxins into the air.
5. Secondhand Clothing Saves Energy
Shopping secondhand clothing also saves a lot of energy. The same with water, when you shop secondhand, new clothing isn’t being produced by your shopping habits, which reduces energy costs.
If many people adopted more eco-friendly clothes shopping habits, we could make a huge difference in reducing pollution and save a lot of earth’s precious resources at the same time.
Because really, if everybody started shopping secondhand more often, and made more conscious purchases regarding their clothing, fast fashion companies wouldn’t produce as much clothing.
Less demand = less manufacturing and distribution = less pollution.
Final thoughts on the environmental benefits of secondhand clothes
As you can see, wearing secondhand clothing has a lot of environmental benefits and is a great way to build your sustainable wardrobe.
Reusing other people’s clothing that they fell out of love with or that simply no longer fits them is a win for both yourself and the planet.
If you’re getting into thrifting and buying clothes secondhand, I have a few resources I’ve written up for you.
Want tips on where to shop used clothing in your area? Check out my post where to get local secondhand items for cheap or free.
Thank you For the insight, it was really been an eye opener it will help me convince my clients to change their mindset to towards second hand clothes. This is enough reason who we should switch to slow Fashion
Super inspiring! Makes me more motivated to start my own eco friendly wardrobe.
What a Fantastic read Thank you! 😊 This is so true, we take the mindset that secondhand clothing etc… is dirty and not worth a second look. Growing up I had an aunt that shopped secondhand & I thought it was weird, but as I grew older I changed my mindset and now just opened a secondhand shop in my local downtown. With your permission, I would love to share your article on my FLX ReFashioned Facebook page?
Hi Kristin, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it. 🙂 Mindset really is everything. Thankfully, it’s not a hard mindset to break, although maybe for some people it would be, ha. And I would love it if you shared my article! Thanks so much and best of luck with your new shop! 🙂
Nice work.
fast fashion