I buy nearly all of my clothing at thrift shops. I also try to encourage my friends and family to do the same. I have found amazing designer label items. I even found an authentic Chanel purse! Often the garments still have tags on the pieces. It's kind of fun seeing what I can find. I admit I have seen some truly odd things in my searches, but that is part of the fun. Why do I do this? It's due both to the exploitative and environmental impact of the garment industry. Additionally, when people recycle their clothing it does not end up in landfills.
The dyes used to color our clothing are creating pollution in water supplies. Larger cities impose regulations and the dyeing moves into small villages where the drinking water of the village is then contaminated by the dye. The water is dumped on the ground and contains salts and sulfides. My friend, Dr. Melissa Lenczewski from Northern Illinois University, has spent years studying water quality all over the world. She has directly witnessed the impact of the clothing industry on the people who live in small villages who make their living dyeing fabric.
Each year 2 billion t-shirts are sold worldwide. Did you know that it takes 713 gallons of water to make one t-shirt? When you buy a t-shirt from the thrift store you are leveraging the same water that was used to produce that t-shirt rather than contributing to the problem. When you throw away your old t-shirts, you are essentially throwing away 713 gallons of water. See my link below on crafts using old t-shirts. Other garments use even more water.
The other issue I have with the garment industry is with labor practice and sweatshops. There have been numerous stories about sweatshops. The collapse of the sweatshop in Bangladesh in 2013 was partially attributed to poor building construction, which comes down to cost. Why would they cut corners? I am guessing to keep garment costs low for their clients. There were 142 workers killed and thousands of workers injured in that incident. I have seen a lot about fast fashion. Those are retailers that sell heavily discounted clothing that is not made to last. When these retailers seek out factories they are looking at cost alone. Don't kid yourself, brands such as North Face, GAP, Ralph Lauren, and DKNY have also been in the news for sweatshop practice. Buying what is considered a "higher" quality garment does not guarantee that the garments are not made in sweatshops.
It is estimated that 168 million children between the ages of 5 and 15 work long hours in sweatshops. In garment factories, children perform tasks such as dyeing, sewing, cutting, packing and detailing garments. While your kid may be playing on his Xbox, many other kids in Asia and Africa are working harder than most of us will ever have to. I'd like to see us spend 16 hours doing one of those jobs and see how we feel. I don't even stay at my desk job 16 hours a day. It is a complex issue, but when you purchase your clothing from local vendors or even better, from a thrift store, you are not participating in a system that takes advantage of little kids.
I have added a link featuring thrift stores in Denver. Check it out and remove yourself from the cycle. I don't buy everything at the thrift store, but I do buy quite a bit there. Have fun and let me know if you find anything interesting there.
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