Why to Consider Secondhand First
Sustainable Swap Sunday
Reduce, reuse, recycle. The three R’s of environmental thinking have been reinforced in many minds — often in the form of a School House Rock refrain which is somehow still tattooed to my 20 year-old brain stem from elementary school.
Unfortunately, many people have taken this idea to mean “recycling will fix the problem”. This is no accident nor the fault of most people. The world’s biggest polluters, including companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle, want their consumers to think recycling is the answer because on one hand, they can force the blame of mass-scale pollution onto individual people (why didn’t you just recycle!) and on the other hand, they can wipe their hands clean of the push for sustainable packaging by simply saying it’s recyclable and that’s enough. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough. According to a National Geographic article, an earth-shattering 91% of all plastic ever produced has never been recycled. That means 91% of all plastic ever produced still exists somewhere, polluting our oceans, air, and land. The plastic coke bottle you drank in 1996 is most likely here somewhere.
We can talk more in-depth about recycling later on. And by no means am I saying you shouldn’t try to recycle, but it must be done correctly and intentionally. Which brings us to the first two R’s: reduce and reuse. These two phrases are by far more important.
Plastic isn’t the only problem. The clothing industry is incredibly wasteful, wasting immense amounts of water and material, and has been proven to often be rife with unethical practices for foreign garment workers. The term “fast fashion” applies to clothes that are cycled out all the time (rather than having 2-4 fashion seasons), made cheaply and sold cheaply, and will not last you. This industry wants you to buy quantity over quality and includes retailers like Romwe, Shein, H&M, Zara, Fashion Nova, Victoria’s Secret, Forever 21, and Urban Outfitters, to name a few. For some people, these retailers are all that’s affordable and there is no shame in that. But, in addition to sustainable new brands, buying secondhand is a great choice for the environment.
Nowadays, there are tons of resources for secondhand shopping besides Goodwill (no hate, I love Goodwill). In this blog, I want to provide some of the best resources for buying as many secondhand items as you can.
Furniture and Home Goods.
Community-oriented apps and websites can be a great way to pick up items locally from people who don’t need them for cheap. I have used the app OfferUp to purchase a TV stand, indoor plant stand, outdoor plant stand (plant game is strong with my roommate), and an entry way table, all for $10-20. These pieces of furniture would have been too expensive to buy new for me, and it’s difficult to spend all my time looking from thrift store to thrift store. Plus, the pieces you can find secondhand will probably be better quality than cheaply made furniture from places like Ikea. Getting something pre-loved doesn’t mean it can’t last!
Facebook marketplace, Nextdoor, and Ebay may also be used for finding more items in your area. Additionally, if there’s a big trash day in your neighborhood, try taking a walk around for a few blocks to see what you can find!
Clothing
I have purchased quite a few clothing items from Goodwill. I love buying jeans from there because they always seem to fit better, and I don’t have to worry about wearing holes in the thighs in a few months (I’d like to thank my mother for making me proportioned to be mostly hips). Plato’s Closet is a clothing-only retailer that sells quite a bit of name brand stuff and I have found success with — I bought a tshirt for my university for $5 (instead of the school’s $20) and an Anthropologie sweater for $8!
Apps like Depop and Poshmark can provide easy ways to both buy and sell clothing and accessories. Thredup is another online site that has several size-inclusive ranges, including plus-size, petite, tall, and juniors. If you’re looking for outdoorsy clothes, try checking out Patagonia’s Worn Wear program, which has pretty sizeable discounts for otherwise expensive fits.
Books/Media
Secondhand book retailers are a great way to save money and many bookstores also sell DVDs and music, too. Half Priced Books is a chain store I’ve frequented many times to buy affordable books, DVDs, and records, as well as sell my own books back (not for much money, mind you, but at least I know they’re getting used).
ThriftBooks is a website I’ve used to buy most of the books I’ve needed for school because it’s cheap and there’s a wide selection.
You can also use the website BookFinder to price match all kinds of books across the internet, hopefully secondhand.
If you can’t buy secondhand books, buying from a local bookstore is a great way to keep money within your community, or to be intentional with your reading (like buying your anti-racist readings from a black-owned bookstore!). And of course, the library is probably the most sustainable way to read.
And besides thrifting, hand-me-downs are an amazing resource that shouldn’t be neglected. As much as I love places like Goodwill, not all donations are used in their stores. To prevent waste, try to be very specific with what you do with clothing, books, jewelry, furniture — whatever you no longer want. Try offering it up to friends, selling it on Ebay, posting notices for neighbors, or donating specific items to specific charities in order to be as confident as you can that your former belongings don’t end up in a landfill.
Happy Thrifting!
Grace Kennedy
For clarity, none of the brands or websites linked in this blog were sponsored.
dissing your mother online, whoa! I love the idea of recycling furniture and larger items. I find that my college age daughter is a great source for that, sending pix to her friends to rehome furniture and other things. I like the idea that things are reused, not just thrown out.