Shrink Your Carbon Footprint by Thrifting

     In addition to costing less and being a unique shopping experience, buying items at thrift stores is beneficial in preserving the environment. 
     By purchasing and wearing second-hand items you will be helping decrease the amount of pollution and waste that adversely affect the environment. If more people bought second-hand items then there would be far less new items being produced which would drastically reduce of amount of energy, toxic chemicals and petroleum being released into the environment. 

     Ninety-eight percent of the clothing that is bought in the United States is from foreign countries (ABC News). This means that brand new items travel a HUGE distance to reach the racks of the department stores. By purchasing second-hand, reused clothing the travel time (transportation pollution) that newly produced items take after being manufactured would be eliminated. 
     Second-hand items are very durable and hardy because they lasted through the first user in a good enough condition to be accepted by a thrift store. These items weren't thrown away and added to the growing population of landfills. Thrift store items also lack the unessential packaging. New items from department stores often consist of extra plastic, tissue and tags that just end up in the trashcan after being purchased. 
     Overall, not only will you be saving a great deal of money by shopping at thrift stores but you will also be doing your share in preserving the Earth's well-being. 

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Celebrities Can Thrift Too!

Thrift shopping is an easy way to save money while still finding and creating a style that is all your own. Due to the "saving money" factor celebrities are probably the last people you'd expect to bump into while you're surfing the racks in a second-hand shop. Nonetheless before and even after they became famous several well-known celebrities were and are proud thrift shoppers! 

The "New Girl" actress, Zooey Deschanel loves thrift 

stores because they're a great place to shop for 

vintage looks. "I didn't have a lot of money, so 

I got things for, like $2, $3, and made myself 

look as good as I could. Limitations make you 

more creative." 

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The "Runaway Bride" star, Julia Roberts said, in 2012, that she loves shopping at thrift store 

for her children. She reportedly purchases 

"gently used" clothing for herself.

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The environmental campaigner, Daryl Hannah loves to shop at thrift stores because she doesn't like to buy brand new clothes. "There are so many 

magazines featuring pictures of celebrities in a 

different outfit every time that it 

fuels discontentment in the rest of us, making us 

crave new clothes, new make-up, new hairstyles, 

which isn’t good for us or the environment."

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Debbie Harry, lead singer of the punk rock 

band Blondie, loves thrift shopping. 

"You have to go in and hunt and it 

can be very entertaining."

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Ryan Tedder, the frontman for OneRepublic, has been thrift store shopping almost his entire life. "I've thrift shopped since I was 13 and half of my wardrobe to this day are still the same shirts 
I had when I was 17, 18."
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R&B singer-songwriter, 

Janelle Monae 

likes to find original clothing at thrift 

stores. "I like one-of-a-kind pieces. I 

don't like everybody walking around 

in stuff that I have on."

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Thrift Shops are 100% Unique

I could go on about my personal attachment to thrift shopping but let's be honest here, statistics are what people really trust. I could say "Hey, shopping at thrift stores is full of benefits and is a really fun experience!" You may appreciate my enthusiasm but you probably would consider this more of an opinion than a fact. However, if I said "More than a third of Americans report they are shopping in thrift stores more often than they did three years ago." You'd admire the validity of that statement even more.

The four statistics featured above display the upward growth of the thrift shopping trend in the United States. The optimal goal regarding shopping would be to save money while still looking stylish. Shopping at second-hand stores achieves both parts of that goal. My favorite statistic is "40 percent said they'd rather purchase a unique item that no one else has over one that's sold in popular retail stores." This is the best thing about thrift stores. They supply a look that is absolutely 100 percent unique because these stores don't feature racks upon racks of the same blouse or dress. In addition, the inexpensive prices will reassure every thrift shopper that they received good value for the purchases they made which is what 79 percent of the United States population believe to be important.

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