Now this title may get some weird looks, but thrift-shopping is a solution to reducing your carbon footprint and benefiting the environment. Some benefits of partaking in this process include less clothes in landfills, less resources used and wasted,and less pollution. To see just how effective this method of shopping is, visit the website: https://serc.berkeley.edu/why-thrifting … ur-wallet/ .

Thrift shopping guarantees a lower personal canon footprint for many reasons and in many ways. Firstly, lot of energy goes into clothing manufacturing, from the transportation of materials to the process of production. Then, there is the energy required to get finished clothing to stores, and dispose of unwanted waste. When you buy secondhand, you’re preventing energy being wasted on the production of new clothes. In addition to energy, water consumption is extremely high at every stage of clothing production. For example, growing one kilogram of cotton requires 5,300 gallons of water and wet processing and printing use 21.6 gallons respectively, per pound of cotton. Manufacturing, packaging, and transportation processes add to this cost as well. Another thing is that the production of cotton uses  many pesticides, which causes soil acidification and water contamination. In addition, it also involves the use of harmful dyes, caustic soda and crude oil products. These chemicals are dumped into natural areas around manufacturing units, contaminating surface and ground water. According to Green Living, Americans throw out anywhere from 60 to over 80 pounds of textile waste annually, and only about 10% of this makes it to thrift stores. If more people start shopping for secondhand clothes, less fabric will be dumped in landfills. Also, packaging material will be reduced, keeping plastic, paper and metal out of the waste stream. Thrifting is an essential part of green living, in more than one way. When you buy used items, you keep them from being sent to a landfill and reduce manufacturing demand as well. Also, by donating old clothes to consignment shops, you encouraging others to buy from thrift stores by giving them something they can use. Recycled cotton clothing uses less than 3% of the energy that would have gone into producing new clothes. When you reuse or recycle clothes, you’re decreasing the demand for production and encouraging sustainable practices. Thrifting is fun and eco friendly!

Thrift shopping is more affordable as well expanding the ability of the amount of money one person might have allowing them to pursue healthier and greener methods of living as opposed to buying higher marked up items in "normal" stores.