Halloween on a budget: A thrifty alternative
Happy late Halloween! I hope you enjoyed trick-or-treating, visiting haunted houses, and of course, eating candy! Every year, I look forward to dressing up in costume. This year, I was Charlie Brown from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” film and my sister was a detective. Instead of buying pre-made costumes, we both crafted our own. In fact, my sister’s costume was almost entirely made with thrifted, handed down, or borrowed items. That brings me to the topic of this blog post. Let’s take a closer look on a better alternative to buying new.
I love thrifting. Just this past weekend, I went to my local Goodwill to get new pants. Not only are the items there far cheaper than stores, they are also good for the environment and my community. By shopping at Goodwill, Salvation Army, or other charity-based thrift shop, you do not support fast fashion and you help others in the process. Fast fashion is the term for cheap, trendy-at-the moment clothes you buy new off of the shelf. Problem is these use up resources and produce large amounts of waste because trends come and go so quickly. Between the years 1960-2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the U.S. increased its production of textiles by 15,270 tons alone! This includes an increase of 9,590 tons going to our landfills. A single person is estimated to throw out 70 pounds of clothes per year. It sounds like a lot already, but globally, it combines to a mind-boggling 13 million pounds of clothes thrown out each year! A large percentage of these clothes could be recycled or used again.
Fast fashion also impacts the environment in other harmful ways. It produces 20% of the world’s water waste and contributes to 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Most of all, a majority of fast fashion is made of polyester which is also plastic. If not filtered out, these plastic microfibers can go into our water bodies and be ingested by aquatic species. Microfibers have been found in water and seafood that are consumed by people. What this means for our health is unknown and currently the topic of research, but many have raised concerns about possible risks.
Thrift shopping goes against large industries that often use underpaid human labor. Many large corporations take advantage of housing their factories in lower income areas – many in third world countries – and requiring people to work long hours with little pay and in poor conditions. This can leave workers, many of them children, struggling to survive and provide for their families. Despite pledging against these practices, some of the largest clothing companies like H&M and Gap are guilty of doing this. To learn more about companies violating human rights, visit: Top 28 companies that use child labor still.
Most clothes in a thrift store are perfectly fine except someone grew out of them or did not need them anymore. When you buy from a thrift store, you give clothes another life and you spend a lot less money to update your wardrobe. You prevent those items from going to landfill and contribute to stopping our growing waste problem. Next Halloween or for your next event, consider your impact on the Earth. Think about ways to create a costume or outfit out of items you already have, or purchase clothes from a thrift store to reuse. The planet (and your community) will thank you!
For sources of the statistics and information I used and to learn more, visit these sites:
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