, fashion accounts for 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and a majority of new clothing gets incinerated or tossed in the trash within a year. In light of alarming facts like these, buying used clothing has started to look like a seriously good alternative — even for beginners not so familiar with digging in $2 bins.Chloë MacDonald-Comely, 26, swore off fast fashion as a New Year’s resolution, citing its immense waste and.
“I think that resale in the long-term is better for the environment, because you’re not creating waste,” says MacDonald-Comely. “It feels more impactful to stop creating the need for consumption, because I think that’s a big part of sustainability — the over-consumption of everything.” Shoppers like MacDonald-Comely are changing the way that resale sites talk about sustainability. Executives at The RealReal, ThredUp, Rebag, and Rent the Runway say that environmentalism has always been a pillar of their businesses, which promote reuse over purchasing new, but in the last few years it has become clear that customers are increasingly turning to them as a way to reduce their impact, too.
When ThredUp launched in 2009, its biggest hurdle was convincing shoppers to buy pre-worn clothing in the first place, since it still carried a stigma, says Wallace. To compete with low-priced fast fashion brands in the aftermath of the Recession, ThredUp’s marketing emphasized its affordability, wide brand selection, and practicality as a closet clean-out tool.