Thrifting Your Way to a Better World
What if I told you there’s a way for you to help the environment and protest fast fashion all while being the best dressed? Sounds appealing right? Well, then you should try thrift shopping! Thrift shopping has so many benefits when it comes to the environment, human rights, and our personal life.
The Environment
The whole production and distribution process of clothing takes up a lot of energy and water, just for the average individual in the U.S to throw away about 60 to 80 pounds of textile per year. Thrifting is just clothes being recycled. It avoids this whole process and is a sustainable way to shop. If you’re good at sewing, you can even find things in thrift stores you can modify and update into something trendier.
Social Issues
With the high demand for quick new trends, fast fashion has been taken to a new level. Due to this, many fashion companies (yes, even the expensive ones) use sweat shops for cheap labor to keep up with demand. Sweat shops are factories that provide illegal working conditions to their employees all while paying them a couple cents an hour. Thrifting allows you to bypass supporting these companies, while allowing you to protest the fast fashion industry. If you’re interested in learning more about sweatshops, you can search online to find a number of documentaries on this topic.
Personal Life
Lastly, thrifting helps you find your personal style and feel more confident. I used to be the type of person who would just buy whatever was trendy, since I wasn’t sure what my style was. The more I thrifted the more I learned what I really liked and how to express myself through clothing. Not to mention you save money thrifting since most clothing ranges from $5-$15.
Support your favorite thrift shop or explore a new one on National Thrift Shop Day on August 17, 2022. So, who wants to go thrift shopping?
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About the author
Logan Collins
Logan Collins is a double major in Management Information Systems and Religion. She will be graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Spring 2023 with a Bachelor’s in Science and Arts. She has also completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training. For her free time, she enjoys going to sunrise/sunset at the beach, reading, plant-based cooking, thrifting, and yoga. Logan has been a Pearson Campus Ambassador for 2 years and has loved every second of her experiences. Pearson has allowed her to gain a variety of skills and given her the confidence to overcome challenges.
