{"id":13096,"date":"2014-11-21T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145696.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=13096"},"modified":"2014-11-20T21:39:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T05:39:12","slug":"secondhand-stores-overloaded-fast-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/secondhand-stores-overloaded-fast-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"Secondhand Stores are Being Overloaded by Fast Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Secondhand<\/a><\/p>\n

If you think your fast fashion<\/a> addiction is justifiable because you always donate items to secondhand stores whenever you buy new items, guess again.<\/p>\n

The Huffington Post<\/a> reports that our fast fashion shopping addictions are taking a toll on secondhand stores. There\u2019s simply too much coming in for these stores to keep up with, reports the Post:<\/p>\n

One New York City Salvation Army store received\u00a0about\u00a0five tons<\/em>\u00a0per day<\/a>\u00a0in 2012. Last year, Salvation Army locations across the country took in 80 million pounds of clothing overall, according to Tim Raines, marketing manager for the organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Council for Textile Recycling says the the U.S. alone generates around 25 billion pounds of brand-new textiles<\/a>\u00a0every year, with a whopping 85 percent of that winding up in landfills. The rest is what goes to thrift and secondhand stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army.<\/p>\n

And these days, many of those items heading for secondhand stores were just on trend a season or two ago\u2014meaning people are in a revolving door of clothes buying dictated by trends meant to be short-lived. That\u2019s because designers and fashion magazines that rely on consumer sales to keep their profits strong, decide on the trends for us. It\u2019s no longer in their best interest to make clothes you\u2019ll want to wear for decades, even though that\u2019s better for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 1901, the average household might spend\u00a014 percent of its annual income\u00a0on clothing, and now it’s just\u00a0over three percent,\u201d the Post reports. \u201cIt makes more sense for us to buy new instead of repairing or altering our old stuff — indeed, between 1900 and 2013, tailors in the U.S. declined from nearly\u00a0230,000\u00a0to just\u00a021,400.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re buying so many new clothes items that secondhand stores can\u2019t keep up with all the donations, and as much as 80 percent of what\u2019s dropped off at thrift stores is being taken by textile<\/a> recyclers and turned into rags. And while that\u2019s better than those clothes winding up in a landfill, it\u2019s still an overwhelmed system being stressed by our lust for fast fashion.<\/p>\n

What might be most disturbing about this situation is that fast fashion is price-competitive with thrift stores these days. And why sift through a dusty thrift store when you can spend the same amount of money or less at your favorite mall store? That seems great in theory, but the treadmill of fast fashion perpetuates the cycle of disposable clothing, not to mention the poor labor conditions these brands employ.<\/p>\n

Buyers do best for their wallets and the planet by investing in high quality clothing items that will last years or decades and being satisfied with fewer clothes in general. And when in need of new items, always shop secondhand first.<\/p>\n

secondhand store image<\/a> via Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you think your fast fashion addiction is justifiable because you always donate items to secondhand stores whenever you buy new items, guess again. The Huffington Post reports that our fast fashion shopping addictions are taking a toll on secondhand stores. There\u2019s simply too much coming in for these stores to keep up with, reports […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":13097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[75,1474,4134],"tags":[5120,4679,8544,5788,8545],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/shutterstock_217839946.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}