Hello everyone! this post was actually written a few weeks ago, but a week later in my English class we got an assignment that fit this topic perfectly. Everyone in the class had to give a TED Talk to the rest of our class and any other classes who wanted to come and watch. I decided it was best to sum up this whole article for my speech, but I still wanted to upload it after I had completed the assignment. So without further ado, here is why I thrift (and why you should too!).
Shopping and buying new clothes is one of my favorite things to do. It allows me to explore new styles, see what the industry is producing, and find clothes that push the boundaries of society's stereotypes (because it is my self-appointed duty to expose the vanilla kids at my school to more than what Patagonia and Forever 21 has to offer-- no offense to those who love that look, live your best life). The last couple years, thrift shopping has come become a new hobby of many teens as the iconic 80's and 90's fashion trends surface back to popularity. It isn't hard to understand why thrifting has made it's way back into mainstream culture; paying a few bucks to get the retro style could catch the eye of any kid who enjoys the 90's clothes. I surely have hopped on the bandwagon, frequenting Salvation Army and Goodwill whenever I have the money to spend. Throughout my journey of searching through aisles of motley clothes, I've learned a few things about why others thrift and why this new trend should continue.
1. Recycling clothes helps of environment
Americans tend to only recycle or donate 15 percent of their used clothing, making textiles one of the poorest recycled items of any reusable material. All the that clothing ends of being 21 billion pounds of clothes dumped in landfills every year. That means the earth is being dug up just for clothes that could be recycled in multiple different ways, such as donating to local thrift or consignment shop, dropping them off at drop-off locations; you can find your nearest one here, or being donated to larger companies. Some Goodwill locations will even take clothes too worn or damaged to sell, whether to sell to salvage brokers or making them into industrial wipes. Also, many big clothing companies including H&M and American Eagle Outfitters offer drop-off boxes to take clothes and textiles of any brand, so that recycling your clothes is easy as a trip to the mall.
2. Clothing tells a story
Almost everything in thrift and consignment shops was worn by somebody else, and to me that is the biggest beauty in thrift shopping. I see clothing as pieces of history, showing what everyone else wore yesterday or 20 years ago. The fact that I get to display that is incredible. When I wear thrifted clothing, I know I am carrying a little piece of someone's life with me as I go through my own life, mixing the former owner's experiences with my own.
3. Thrifting closes the slave labor gap
KnowTheChain, an organization that provides a resource for companies and investors to understand and address forced labor risks, recently scored 20 large companies out of 100 on how well they dealt with addressing slave labor. They tested on topics such as Traceability and Transparency (whether or not they know and disclose how their supply chains work), their Monitoring and Training (how they react to and prevent unethical labor), and their Worker Rights (whether or not workers have a voice, and how much they are paid). Many huge companies such as Prada received a nasty 9, and Kering (the company that owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Puma, and more) scoring 27. The other 17 companies, excluding Adidas, all scored below 80. Slave labor is an enormous problem among most clothing companies, and buying clothes through thrift shops ends the support for the production of clothes through these corporations, one person at a time.
I truly believe thrifting could change the fashion industry for good, transcending just being a way for people to get great clothes for a few bucks. It has so much more value to it, enough to make a change in our world... one thifter at a time.
Stay peachy,
Aaron <3
sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/where-does-discarded-clothing-go/374613/
https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/because-you-asked-what-should-i-do-with-worn-out-clothing
https://knowthechain.org/benchmarks/show_companies/3/