Thrifting Impact

I started working at a thrift store over one year ago and it changed the way I think about my wardrobe. I had recently started to enjoy thrifting, so I thought that working at a thrift store would be the perfect way to get into the retail industry. I’ve learned so much about resale, sustainability, and merchandising through this job. 

Americans throw away over 13 millions pounds of clothing each year. Most of the clothing made today with fast fashion companies is plastic which takes a very long time to decompose. That is why it is so important to thrift clothes to elongate the life of garments, which in turn, leads to less volume in landfills. Landfills create carbon emissions that turn into methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. Dumps that fill up with trash that takes years and years to decompose are terrible for our atmosphere and affect climate change. 

I am very passionate about protecting the world we live in. The fashion industry is a large part of the problem, so I do my best to help in the industry as much as possible. One of the classes I took required us to watch a documentary called Textile Mountain. This film changed my mindset about fast fashion, landfills, and trash. It showed the biggest dump in Kenya and how it’s not only bad for the environment in general, but for the people surrounding the area. It really put things into perspective for me. It’s only one of the reasons that I thrift almost all of the clothing I get for my wardrobe. I am always sure to “cycle my closet,” meaning I sell some of my clothes to the store I work at, then I am able to purchase new pieces that I will wear more often. This cycle extends the life of clothing even further and ensures that great pieces do not just sit in a dark closet, never to see the light of day. 

Another reason it is important to buy used clothes and less new clothes is that it wastes less resources. The amount of water used to make a single piece of clothing can be around 1,800 gallons. Chemicals are also used in the growing of cotton, and the production of clothes. Thrifting helps to decrease the demand for new products, leading to less waste and chemical usage. Water can be a scarcity in many places across the world, why should so much be wasted on one piece of clothing? 

I know what you are thinking. Sustainability is all everyone can talk about nowadays, especially Generation Z. What difference does it all make? I understand that I am part of a large group of people preaching about saving the planet. But honestly, if even one person starts to buy used clothing because of my short story, then I will be happy. It might seem hopeless, but even when one person thrifts their clothing, there will be less waste on this Earth.