Today, we’re lucky enough to have lots of ways to shop sustainably. However, it can still be tricky to know where to start. It might feel like your options are narrow when you’re trying to make ethical purchases, but, in reality, that’s no longer true. Read on for a breakdown of different sustainable shopping methods, and find out how to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Thrifting
Thrifting is a great option for when you’re in the mood to browse. At thrift stores, you often need to do a fair bit of digging to find a piece of clothing that’s both your taste and your size. Thrifting is an activity in and of itself, so if you’re hoping to find something quickly, you might want to opt for another method of shopping. Thrift stores are usually very affordable, and tend to be cheaper than shopping secondhand online, and are definitely cheaper than buying new. So if you’re looking to find a hidden treasure that’s new to you and inexpensive, thrifting is the way to go!
Online secondhand marketplaces
There are many sites you can check out if you want to shop secondhand online, including ThredUp, Depop, and Poshmark.
ThredUp is an online consignment and thrift store with a large catalogue of clothes for all ages, sizes, and styles. It offers clothes from 35,000 different brands at up to 90% off retail prices. You can browse the selection for different articles of clothing, or filter by style, size, color, price, and/or brand. I find ThredUp to be most useful for searching for a specific brand. For example, if you like a particular brand of jeans, but you know they aren’t sustainably made, you can search the brand on ThredUp to see if you can buy them secondhand. You can also save your sizes to your ThredUp account so that your searches will filter to show you items in your size. The downside to ThredUp is that, although the prices are reduced, items tend to be more expensive than they would be at an in-person thrift store or on a site like Depop, so sometimes it makes more financial sense to buy a new item from sustainable brand than to buy from ThredUp.
Depop and Poshmark are both online fashion marketplaces where individuals can sell their unwanted clothing items. These sites are similar to ThredUp, except that the items are sold by individual sellers. This often makes it easier to reach out for information; many sellers welcome requests for more photos, sizing details, or other queries. This also means you might be able to haggle to bring down the price. Like ThredUp, these sites have large selections, but they can get pretty expensive. I tend to use ThredUp and Depop/Poshmark pretty interchangeably; if I’m looking for a certain style of item -- say, a striped sweater -- I’ll browse all three sites and see which has the best option.
Buying new from sustainable brands
Shopping secondhand will always be more sustainable than buying new, but there are companies that do their best to mitigate their negative environmental impacts. If you’re looking to buy something new, it’s best to do your research and find a company that makes that item as sustainably and ethically as possible. Googling is a good place to start -- e.g. “best vegan hiking boot brands” -- but my favorite way to find a sustainable brand for a certain item is to use the app Good On You, which rates the ethics of clothing brands based on their environmental, animal, and labour practices. You can search a certain brand to see how sustainable it is, or you can search a type of clothing and Good On You will recommend brands that produce it sustainably. Buying new items from ethical companies can be a good option if you’re looking to invest in a quality piece that you’ll wear for years to come. Sustainable fashion typically doesn’t run cheap -- it’s expensive to ethically produce clothing, and the cost of sustainable clothing is considered the “true price” of fashion. However, sustainable clothing is made to last, promoting slow fashion, so investing in a new item every once in a while is a great way to build a wardrobe of basics over time.
It may take a little while to get the hang of sustainable fashion, but after a while, it can become even more fun than regular shopping! You can find unique pieces at cheaper prices, and your purchases are relatively guilt-free. Living sustainably isn’t about giving up things you love -- it’s about finding a way to enjoy them without harming the environment.
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