Thrift Shops and Sustainability

Samantha MacBride brought up another idea and platform in sustainability that I had not put much thought to before reading the first couple chapters of her book. As she explains how textiles are a prominent problem in the life-line/cycle of waste, I had never thought about how thrift shops have the possibility of acting as an end-point for textiles. This led me to look into the role of thrift shops in sustainability a bit more.

MacBride explains, “Conditions for the thrift shop had ironically never been better.” (MacBride 40). I would agree with her stance here noting that the appeal of retro clothing has become increasingly popular over the past few decades as it seems now thrift shopping has hit a niche and is making strides in mainstream society, as evident through Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” song. Thrift shopping has broken the barrier of strictly appealing to a less financially fortunate population, as people from all types of socioeconomic statuses seem to be buying into the idea of thrift shopping, regardless if they know about the positive effects on waste production that it may have. While it is known that thrift shops provide a textile alternative from newly produced clothes at extremely cheap prices, a webpage I came across further embraced MacBride’s notation of thrift shops in that it notes that thrift shops even further save money by skipping the process of recycling entirely. While some textile products are noted and advertised to be recyclable, the process of recycling does require time, resources and energy, and in turn, money. So I though, this sounds great in terms of sustainability doesn’t it? I then came across another person’s blog  that speaks on how they happily buy all of their clothes from a thrift shop by choice, in order to make a conscience  effort towards sustainability. Until she came across a realization that, maybe she should feel guilty for wearing a GAP article of clothing publically advertised across it. She thought that wearing these types of brands and logos could be interpreted to be a form of second-hand advertising, and could provide a perception that the wearer supports big name labels and the purchasing of new clothing.

 While I do not think this person should feel any real guilt as her effort towards sustainability outweighs any judgment or accidental advertisement that may come from this. I do think that the concept of thrift shops in sustainability is only a short term solution towards sustainability and zero waste. It is plausible to imagine that many people could support buying clothes from thrift shops although I do not think it is plausible to think that everyone will buy all of their clothing from thrift shops. Even avid supports may slip up just a bit to reach out and get that special pair of shoes that they simply need to have for this summer. It is also very possible that even clothes from a thrift shop will eventually become too tattered or frayed for anyone to wear, inevitably leading the textiles to a landfill or incinerator. Rather, I believe a long term solution would be to include that extra cost included in recyclable textiles of processing, energy, and resources in order to create a full circle solution for sustainability in textiles. Hopefully laws can be put in place to require textile companies to strictly use recyclable materials for their products in the future.