Think Thrifting is Sustainable? // not when you shop second-hand with a fast fashion

Hello everybody and welcome back to my channel. My name is Gita Marie and in today's video I have bad news for everyone who loves thrifting, which definitely includes me. I have shopped secondhand for ages. I grew up in a family where we used thrift stores because it was cheaper, so out of necessity, and every time I went it was like an adventure, a treasure hunt, and I still feel that way today. And I know that that's the case for a lot of people because there's nothing better than finding a really good thrift find. And as such, if you want to find those good thrift finds, you often go to thrift stores, secondhand platforms, vintage stores, etc. quite a lot. That's also one of the number one tips that I've given on this platform, that if you want to find the good stuff, you have to make frequent appearances in the thrift store. And if you're a thrifty girly as well, you probably recognize this. When you go often and you're looking for specific things, like, you know, the really good quality things, you often end up also buying something that might not actually be it. You might end up buying something that feels cool in the moment or you don't really need it but it looks kind of nice, you often get carried away. And sometimes, and I feel this way in thrift stores, you buy something with this sort of idea that if you were a completely different person you would absolutely love this. It happens a lot and I can recognize this. I'm trying to be better and I know so many other people do this as well. And it feels okay, right? Because it's secondhand, it's pre-loved, so the carbon footprint is zero. So you can buy whatever you want and you don't really need to think about conscious consuming in the same way. Now, I am sort of asking this in a very suggestive way because there is still impact related to things even though you buy them in thrift stores. We have previously covered some of these issues on this channel, very specifically the secondhand hierarchy of Europe and the West in general. It's about what happens to our thrift shop donations. Because contrary to popular belief, what doesn't happen is that they all just go out into the thrift store that you donate them to. Because a lot of fast fashion today is extremely poor quality. It's made quickly, it's not made to last, it's made from poor quality material using methods that aren't long-lasting. Because the fast fashion industry is built on getting things out really, really quickly. Everything moves by really fast and when they do that you can't really take your time to work on the craftsmanship of something. Also, when you pay people slave labor wages and they work slave labor hours, it's not really with craftsmanship in mind. As such, we produce a lot of clothing, produce 100 billion pieces of clothing every single year. And the thing is, now we're just going to recap the other videos, we're going to get back into what we're actually going to talk about. So what happens is that the sheer volume of clothing, no infrastructure can deal with it. No infrastructure in rich economies and definitely no infrastructures in the global south, where loads of our thrift store donation ends up in open landfills where they emit methane and wreak havoc on the environment. Anyway, thrifting and donating things to feel better about new stuff is still overconsumption. It's still an unmindful way of consuming. And recently there's been loads of articles in Danish media about how we shop secondhand and how that actually affects the impact of our clothing. So I thought I wanted to share this with you because this is not only applicable to Denmark, it's applicable to many, many, many economies, societies, countries. And yeah, I'm gonna be a little bit of a bummer in this video, but I think it's necessary to be that because we all aspire, if you clicked on this video, the chances are that we all aspire to be better versions of ourselves when it comes to how we consume things. That often means tackling, challenging, acknowledging uncomfortable truths, and this is definitely one of them. So there was a report done by a Danish think tank called Concito that showed that on average the consumption of clothing accounts for about 300 kilograms of CO2 per year per consumer. And then there was a German report that showed that shopping exclusively secondhand will only reduce your emissions with seven kilograms of CO2, while maintaining, reducing, washing, and especially reducing tumble drying clothes, as well as responsibly disposing of them once they can no longer be worn, is much more effective when it comes to lowering emissions. Now that's not overwhelming, and actually when I first read this I was extremely skeptical because I've always thought that when you buy something secondhand it's already in the waste stream, someone has already discarded of it, as such the impact is zero. Right? So the thing is, when we shop secondhand with a fast fashion mindset that completely neutralizes the positive impact that shopping secondhand otherwise would have had, and it is extremely easy to start shopping secondhand with a fast fashion mindset. I have done it more times than I can count, and I am sure that you can relate to some of this as well. It's about buying things that you don't really need, that doesn't really fit right, that isn't your style, but you're trying it out and you're having fun with it. It's the treasure hunt mentality where you just accumulate stuff that you perhaps aren't going to use, but it's fun and it's cheap, so you do it. And that's fast fashion with more steps. Now I think this is also something that's being amplified, and this is an issue that's increasingly important to talk about, because of platforms like Vinted and Depop, where you add even more impact to secondhand clothing by shipping it, making it possible for consumers to buy from other consumers all across the globe, shipping that clothing back and forth, using it a couple of times, and then resending it out there. And that whole circulation of clothing might, if we're looking at this from an optimistic point of view, that might seem like a secondary system to how fast fashion is working, but it's actually just upholding the idea that fashion has to be fast paced. It maintains the idea that fashion is disposable and you only wear it a couple of times before you reship it out into the world. When you don't change the volume of clothing you produce, you just change it into something else, but it's the same volume of clothing you're consuming. We're not fixing the problem. Now I realize that there are tons of nuances to this, and one of the things that I would like to point out here, that even if you buy secondhand fashion with a fast fashion mindset, you are still not supporting individual brands and how they treat resources and how they treat their garment workers. You don't support any individual brands, which I always think is a good thing. This is not a video that's meant to discourage you from shopping secondhand, this is a video that's meant to make you rethink how you shop secondhand. Okay, I recently talked to a researcher at my old university about this, and one of the things we talked about was the fact that, well, this might be true for some people. If you're shopping secondhand with a fast fashion mindset, that is more polluting, that is more wasteful and more unsustainable than buying a shirt from new, no matter the brand, and wearing it for decades or until it literally falls apart, and when it falls apart you purchase a new shirt. That is a more sustainable way of consuming than constantly having a flow of buying new things, discarding old things and buying new things again, even if those new things are technically pre-loved. I think this is a really interesting conversation that we need to have, especially so in the sustainability, zero waste, sustainable fashion community. Otherwise we end up promoting a lifestyle that is actually not as sustainable as we say that it is. Presenting secondhand shopping as always inherently being more sustainable is not true, if we're still buying the same volume of stuff that we used to buy before. So I think this is something that is really, really interesting to reflect upon. Now I want to be solution-minded on this platform, that's what it's all about. It's not only about acknowledging that things are going to shit, it's also about showing ways of doing better things and letting you guys inspire each other as well. I don't want to be a party pooper and only talk about or acknowledge how things are going to shit. I don't want to invoke hopelessness, because if you're sitting now with a feeling of, well, I can't ever do anything right then, or is there even a correct way or a sustainable way of buying clothes? I don't want to invoke hopelessness, and that's actually one of the things that I've been a little bit skeptical of when I've seen the articles in Danish media. I'm afraid that talking about this will discourage people from buying secondhand across the board. So when we talk about the fact that there are certain ways of purchasing or consuming secondhand fashion that isn't as sustainable as we think that it is, or isn't as positive, doesn't have the positive impact we think that it does, I'm afraid that that will simply just discourage people from buying secondhand fashion altogether, or disregarding the option of buying secondhand, because it doesn't matter if we buy from new or we buy secondhand. Then I might as well buy from new, where no one has worn it before, and I have a little bit more room to decide sizes and colors and styles and shapes, etc. Instead of going out of my way spending time finding things in thrift stores or on secondhand apps. I'm scared that that is the take. I'm scared that that is the feeling you're left with. That would really bum me out, because that is not what I want to talk about here. But I think it's important that when we as environmentalists are even just like slightly concerned or critical of the world that we live in, that we can also criticize the systems and opportunities that we benefit from, or that we think are good. Simply just labeling something as this is sustainable and this is not, and then deleting all nuance in between them, is not helpful for anyone. So what I don't want you to take away from this video is that it never makes a difference buying secondhand. It makes a huge difference. But if our secondhand purchases is going to have a positive impact, we have to be mindful with the consumption of it. We need to be mindful and conscious of the volume of clothing we're buying. Which means, this leads me to my next point, which is the solution. Aha! I think I've said this in every single video. I don't know. Some of you guys are saying that I'm repetitive, but that's because it's the truth. I am sorry. Using what you already have is the most sustainable thing to do. Rewearing, repairing, reshaping, resewing, mending, doing everything that you can with the clothes you already have, is always going to be more sustainable. Now that doesn't mean that you can't ever get anything from a thrift store, obviously. But it means that shopping for leisure, even when it's secondhand shopping for leisure, is not a good way to consume clothing. It upholds the same system and way of thinking that the fast fashion industry benefits from. It's all the same thing. We neutralize our positive impact when we overconsume. And that has nothing to do with what we're consuming, but the vast volume of materials we're consuming. I hope that this is helpful. I hope that this is thought provoking. I hope also helpful, but most of all thought provoking. But I would love to hear you guys' opinions. So comment down below what you think about this, and if this is something that you have thought about before. Anyway, I hope that you like this video, even though it might not be what you wanted to hear. This is for sure something that I struggle with a lot myself, because I recognize a lot of this fast fashion mindset way of thinking when it comes to thrift stores. So this is intensely annoying. It's always intensely annoying when you realize that the way you're acting or the way you're consuming isn't ideal. It's frustrating and it's annoying. Anyway, I feel like this is something that we need to discuss or be aware of or simply just acknowledge. And it's definitely something that's going to be more important to talk about. So thank you so much for watching this video. If you're interested in more things about sustainability and conscious consuming and consumer patents, consider subscribing to my channel. That would make my day. You can also watch my impact analysis series for more overviews and perspectives and information about impact and how to use materials in the best possible way. Thank you so much for watching, have an amazing day, and I will see you guys next time. Take really good care of yourselves. Until then, bye! Thank you so much for watching this video, and also a special thank you to my Patreon supporters. You guys help me create green zero-waste content, and I love you guys. You can find the links to my social media accounts down below and the link to my Patreon on this screen. Bye!