A unique behind-the-scenes look at a thrift store in Canada has shone a light on the mildly depressing reality of secondhand shopping.
What’s In Store Fort McMurray (@whatsinstoreymm), a pre-loved clothing shop in Alberta, Canada, posted a video on TikTok showing the back room of the establishment piled high with bags upon bags of clothes. While this might seem like an ideal scenario for a thrift shop, with plenty of stock to add to rails, it does demonstrate quite how big our addiction to fashion is.
“We all need to open our eyes and do something about fast fashion,” the store captioned a video of the situation. “We need to stop buying.”
Indeed, the idea of fast fashion is to make us buy more clothes. Items are produced quickly and cheaply to keep up with recent trends, and as soon as one item has flown off shelves, the next trend will populate them soon enough.
The rate of production is a huge drain on resources, with lots of water and energy required to create fabrics and then turn them into garments. According to Earth.org, it takes around 700 gallons of water to make one cotton T-shirt, while 2,000 gallons are needed for a single pair of jeans.
Fast fashion also utilizes cheap plastic fibers in a lot of items that can shed microplastics that enter water sources after a wash cycle. Microplastics have been found in nearly all major organs in the human body and have been linked to cancer, respiratory illness, mental degeneration, and fertility and pregnancy issues.
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It’s lucky if clothes from fast-fashion outlets make their way to thrift stores at all, as many are created with planned obsolescence in mind — or intentionally crafted to break or fall apart in a short space of time. If they do begin to disintegrate, these clothes will likely head to landfills, where they will contribute to the production of planet-warming gas methane.
Earth.org observed that of the 100 billion garments produced every year worldwide, 101 million tons head to landfills.
About thrifting, What’s In Store wrote: “Not only does this help to reduce waste, but it also contributes to the circular economy, where items are reused and repurposed instead of being discarded. By shopping at thrift stores, we can contribute to a more sustainable future.”
Commenters were surprised by just how many clothes the store had stockpiled.
“Seeing this issue displayed like this really hit me,” one user said.
“There’s probably so many good vintage items in there if those are all donated clothes,” added another.
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