Buy Second-Hand Clothes – Great for Sustainability

In this post I will outline why I buy second-hand clothes (preloved clothes) and only buy new from selected retailers if I have to e.g socks, underwear etc. I’ve recently written a Boody bamboo clothing product review if you’re interested in new sustainable clothing.

Buying new fast fashion clothes is bad for the environment as it’s just not sustainable and unless it’s ethical fashion than there’s human rights factors consider. Fast fashion quite literally encourages consumerism and it can be expensive when you have to keep replacing poorly made clothing.

Most of my clothes are second-hand clothes from thrift stores (charity shops) and hand-me-downs from friends. It’s the most sustainable and ethical clothing you can buy.

The same applies to my children, I have a friend who’s son is a a few years older than my son and she always gives me the next size up in clothes. Which is pretty handy to be honest!

I bought a few baby items second-hand from EBay sellers for the first few months of my baby’s life. I have been topping up from EBay second-hand, in the next size up ever since. Any of the new clothes we’ve received has been bought by friends and family.

This post interestingly asks, has lockdown made us more sustainable with our fashion? During the 2020 pandemic running out to buy fast fashion clothes was definitely not on many people’s minds.

This post contains affiliate links which means I make a small profit if you buy through my link. I would never recommend something I didn’t believe in or wouldn’t buy myself, thank you for your support.

Secondhand Clothes & Minimalism

I am not a minimalist, as much as I’d love to be. I don’t have a lot of belongings as such but my house is far from the plant filled minimalist home. This is partly because of having children and partly because I spend a lot of time at home now that I seem to want things to make my life a little easier.

That-being-said I love the idea behind minimalism and I think there’s nothing worse than receiving an unwanted gift – when you’re trying to avoid clutter. Of course in that scenario how to recycle unwanted gifts 9 tips, would really help you out with doing this properly.

In regards to sustainable clothes, having a simple wardrobe I find relatively easy. I have: a chest of drawers with everyday tops and trousers, a built in wardrobe with dresses, skirts and spare jackets and a small shoe rack with about 15 boots and shoes.

Saying that I could probably do a little better on the clothes front as I do seem to have a lot of dresses and skirts that I thought I’d save just in case I needed them. However, since I last had a clothes sort out approximately 6 months ago I haven’t even opened the wardrobe to reach for any of it.

On my next sort out I think I will donate most of these. If I have a special event such as a wedding to go to, I know that I have friends and family that I can borrow from if I need to. It seems unnecessary for me to keep it all, just in case.

Is Buying Secondhand Clothes Sustainable

It might seem a bit much, to be that intent on not buying any new clothes and mainly buying second-hand clothes or preloved clothes only, but I do have my reasons.

Why Is Buying Secondhand Sustainable

The environmental impact of fast fashion is really crazy this TED-Ed video discusses it in full but the average t-shirt takes 2700 litres of water to grow the cotton to make it. Which is equal to 30 bath tubs full of water!

Non organic cotton is grown using lots of chemical pesticides which is damaging for the surrounding eco-system. Organic cotton is obviously grown without these pesticides but it only makes up 1% of the 22,700,000 tonnes of cotton grown worldwide.

There are a lot of variables with materials as well for example a polyester t-shirt is estimated at having 5.5kg of CO2 emissions compared with a cotton t-shirt having 2.1kg of CO2 emissions.

It states in this article about fast fashion that textile production is one of the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 which is more emissions than international flights and maritime shipping. A Large proportion of fast fashion clothing manufacturing occurs in China and India where they rely on coal-fuelled power plants. This increases the footprint of each garment.

The other environmental issue with clothes is the microfibres from synthetic clothing coming off the clothes in the washing machine and ending up in the ocean. For more information on this check out my blog post, Plastic in our Oceans.

Due to these issues with buying brand new clothing, it makes buying secondhand clothes the most sustainable option. When you buy secondhand you are making use out of clothing that is already in circulation and therefore not triggering the manufacture of more brand new clothing.

The issue with fast fashion

If that doesn’t convince you that fast fashion is bad for the environment, the other issue is that we live in a wasteful society where clothes are cheaply made, worn a few times and then discarded for the next fast fashion item.

A survey in 2017 in the UK stated that 2000 people found that 3/4 quarters of them sent unwanted clothes to landfill because they didn’t know they could be recycled or sent to a thrift store (charity shop). An estimated 235 million individual items of fast fashion clothing would end up in landfill due to this.

This sustainable living UK blogger states that £30 billion worth of unworn clothes hang in the UK’s wardrobes. We buy 38 million new garments each week, yet send 11 million to landfill.

In the US 15+ million tons of used textile waste from fast fashion, is generated in the US each year. Only 15% of this will be recycled by consumers meaning the rest will end up in landfill. An average American throws away approximately 80 pounds of used fast fashion clothing, per person per year. On average, nationally, it costs cities $45 per ton to dispose of old clothing.

What Are The Ethical Issues In The Fashion Industry

They do touch on this in the TED-Ed talk video above. Fast fashion clothes available on the high street are mostly made in factors in China, India and Bangladesh.

Fast fashion clothing is made in sweatshops in these countries. They have been referred to as ‘Sweatshops’ because the workers work long hours for a low wage and usually in terrible unsafe working conditions.

This article states that 85% of workers in sweatshops are women 18-25 years old. There is an estimated 250 million children working in sweatshops worldwide and 22 million die annually due to poor conditions in the factories!

Primark

With Primark for example their factories are in Bangladesh and there has been quite a few scandals surrounding the factories. In 2013 there was an accident where the factory collapsed and 1,100+ workers died as a result. It seems that was not an isolated incident as poor working conditions have been reported at a number of factories where Primark fast fashion clothes are made.

The Cost Of Fast Fashion Clothing

Another question to consider is, how much of the money goes to the worker? There’s a lot information floating around about this. I’ve seen things that state of a $20 item they estimate $1 will go to the worker. I have also seen memes that state of a $10 item this is where it goes: $5 Clothing store, £2.25 brand, $1.75 materials and production, $0.70 Taxes and distribution, $.27, cotton farmer, $0.03 workers wages.

Please note that I have been unable to confirm whether these amounts are correct, however it does make you think that with such a low cost item – someone must be losing money somewhere. It does seem more likely to be the workers and cotton farmers.

The issue is not just in factories in Bangladesh either, in 2010 an undercover journalist allegedly discovered a factory in Manchester that makes Primark clothes were paying workers £3 an hour when the national minimum wage was £5.73. They stated that the workers were being made to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

I was in a conversation with a work colleague a few years ago about Primark and she believed Primark were such a great company because she’d learnt about them at college. She said something along the lines of ‘Primark are great they pay a living wage and the children who work in the factories only have to work 4 days a week so they get to go to school for 3 days.’

Needless to say I didn’t think Primark were great at all and I told her this much! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get her to understand why I thought it was terrible that children were working in the first place but maybe it will click for her one day.

Worst High Street fast fashion brands. Although they’re probably all much of the same to be honest, unless they clearly state Fairtrade they’re unlikely to be ethical fashion:

• Primark, Bangladesh factories which very likely have poor wages and terrible working conditions.
• H&M, In 2018 allegedly it was reported that H&M’s factories in Bulgaria, Turkey, India and Cambodia were not paying their workers anywhere near a living wage and as a result the workers could not cover their families basic needs.
• Ripcurl, They admitted in 2016 that one of their factories was in North Korea despite having a ‘made in china’ label. It is thought that the people making the clothes they are slaves.
• Victoria’s Secret, Similar to Primark they have factories in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Where conditions have been supposedly reported as being poor. It’s been said that the workers have been made to work 14-15 hours a day, 7 days a week with only 1 day off every few months.
• Zara, In 2013 Zara was accused of having sweatshops in Argentina where similarly the Bolivian employers claimed that they were made to work from 7am – 11pm without a break, 6 days a week.
• Asos, this article states that Asos don’t pay workers a living wage in their Turkish factories and child labour is used.

My thoughts are that the textile industry is modern slavery of our time, I just avoid buying anything from the high street (main brands) and just buy second-hand clothes/preloved clothes or from ethical fashion brands just in case.

Save Money With Preloved Clothes

Another big plus for buying second-hand clothes is that it’s generally cheaper to buy preloved clothes from thrift stores (charity shops) or from individual sellers on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace.

Not always though so I think it does pay to watch thrift store (charity shop) prices because sometimes they try to sell low quality items at too high a price in my opinion. However that probably comes down to lack of knowledge for those that are pricing them up. You can also get some preloved clothes at a bargain price though, so do have a rummage when you get a chance.

If you want some more ideas of where to buy thrift clothes online or offline, read my post on this subject.

If you’re wondering if the zero waste lifestyle is for the privileged, visit my post here, for my thoughts.

I personally look on Ebay first if I’m looking for something specific like baby vests for example, I usually find some preloved clothes which are suitable on there. If not I next look at Facebook Marketplace as people locally are usually sending various second-hand clothes.

As people usually sell second-hand baby clothes in bundles you can really pick up a bargain. As children grow out of clothes so quickly I don’t see the need to spend lots of money on them. My son gets holes in his trousers every other week, not sure how!?

For myself I rarely buy clothes at all or even look for it because I do have a lot of different tops that I alternate depending on the season or if I’m breastfeeding. However, if I do buy anything for myself it’s always preloved clothes to reduce my personal carbon footprint and to use up things already in circulation. This just makes sense to me to live frugally and sustainably.

Check out this post 10 Reasons to Buy Second-hand Clothes for more tips on buying second-hand clothes.

Where To Buy New Sustainable Clothes

If you have the money see my below suggestions for buying new sustainable clothing. It’s obviously not as cheap as buying second-hand clothes/ preloved clothes, however if the quality is good they will last much longer. To find out which fabrics are sustainable in fashion, click here.

The Vegan Kind Supermarket UK

The Vegan Kind UK sell some vegan and sustainable men and women’s organic cotton fairtrade T-shirts (Affiliate link).

And Keep Shopping UK

And Keep Shopping, Dorset UK sell some underwear, socks and adult sweatshirts. They also sell some children’s like this Organic cotton fairtrade T-shirt (Affiliate Link) which is so cute!

Bam Bamboo Clothing UK

My favourite place to buy Bamboo vests and socks is Bam Bamboo Clothing UK, I love the quality of the clothes. It feels soft and comfortable for everyday wear or for working out. (Referral link for 15% off each)

If you like sustainable active wear in particular, check out how to choose sustainable active wear for more information.

I’ve been wearing the same bamboo vest from Bam almost every day since I fell pregnant beginning of 2019 and now it’s only just started to lose a bit of thread which I could easily fix if I needed to. I’ve actually just replaced it with a smaller size, 10 months post partum so will probably just keep it for working out.

Molke UK

My favourite comfortable bras are Molke, I discovered them in a breastfeeding group on Facebook. They are handmade in Perthshire UK and they come in such cool patterns. They also have a stretchy band and no uncomfortable underwire in them.

They were made originally for breastfeeding mum’s and they have a lot of larger sizes to provide good support for bustier ladies.

I find these so comfortable and I will continue to wear them even when I stop breastfeeding.

Check out my eco-friendly products post if you’re looking for more sustainable ideas.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post about second-hand clothes and sustainability. I think it’s a common misconception that people who buy preloved clothes are poor but for environmentalists it’s not the case.

I do think ethical fashion can be a bit more expensive but it’s usually great quality and will last much longer than your average fast fashion clothing item.

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If you have any thoughts, let me know in the comments. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. Or I have a YouTube channel if you’d rather listen to my dulcet tones.