Shopping secondhand does so much good for the world. In fact, it really concretizes the motto reduce, reuse, and recycle. The great thing about secondhand shopping is you can just buy anything secondhand nowadays —- furniture, clothes, books, toys, cars, and many more. 

Plus, you won’t only be saving the environment, you’ll be saving money too! So thrifting really does have a substantial positive impact whether it’s for an individual or for the rest of the world.

When it comes to trash, we humans have this “out of sight, out of mind” kind of thinking. Just throw it in the bin and forget about it. That might apply to your ex. But, trash definitely ends up somewhere. 

Whether it’s something as small as microplastics or as huge as an old car, the items we purchase or consume directly impact the environment. So what’s one great solution to save the planet? Thrifting, of course! Here are 5 ways that shopping secondhand helps the environment:

1. It keeps clothes from going to landfills. Did you know that 30% of unwanted clothes go to landfills every year? That’s 350,000 tonnes of clothing annually. Secondhand shopping extends the life of an item that the initial owner doesn’t want anymore. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and this definitely applies to thrifting! 
2. It reduces pollution. Fast fashion is one of the most popular ways to produce clothing nowadays because it is cheap and quick. But is fast fashion bad for the environment? Yes, it definitely is. Fast fashion makes up 10% of carbon emissions. Plus, 60% of products used by the fast fashion industry are plastic. This contributes to 35% of microplastics in the ocean. So by actually reducing the demand for fast fashion, we can curb how fast fashion affects the environment through thrifting. 
3. It reduces water waste. There is really so much water waste with how fast fashion is made. In fact, 20% of all water pollution comes from the fashion industry. To take that into perspective, it takes 400 gallons of water to make enough cotton for one t-shirt alone. That’s a lot of water just to make one shirt! So instead of buying a new shirt every couple of months, you can help cut water waste by buying secondhand. 
4. It saves energy. Our world is slowly shifting from using fossil fuels to renewable energy. But a lot of companies and factories haven’t made that switch. With how large the fashion industry is, there is a considerable amount of energy used up for production. Thrifting is a great way to save energy because this eliminates the process of producing new clothes. 
5. It eliminates packaging. Buying something new often comes with the packaging. So much plastic and paper go into the packaging. But buying secondhand eliminates the use of packaging. This can save on natural resources and the energy used to produce and transport packaging. 

There are so many ways that thrifting could benefit humanity and the planet. So buying secondhand really means you’re saving so much more than just money. 

Want to shop secondhand but don’t know where to start? For easy and efficient secondhand online shopping, you can head on over to lomasearch.com for amazing items at great prices.