The clothes we buy at low prices from major fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion companies come with hidden costs for the environment, for those who produce them in very poor conditions, and often, for those who wear them. We discussed these issues in detail in the first episode of the series on how the fashion industry can be cleaner and more ethical.
The solution offered by second-hand stores, giving new life to clothes we often give up on very quickly, may seem like an alternative to brands like ZARA, H&M, or more recently, Shein and Temu. A recent report by the online platform ThredUp, where people can sell clothes they no longer wear, estimates that the global second-hand clothing market will be worth $350 billion by 2028. They say that, within a year, approximately 10% of the total clothing market will consist of such stores.
We talked to experts in the circular economy, environmental authorities, second-hand store owners, and warehouse managers to see if this reuse model can really be a solution. The goal is to become smarter shoppers and reduce, over time, the devastating consequences of the textile industry, which is the second most polluting industry in the world.
In a hall about the size of a cinema, with a narrow aisle in the middle, the only source of light is the door through which sack after sack of clothes enter. You see them wherever your eyes fall—thousands of bags piled up on shelves taller than a person. We're in a second-hand clothing warehouse on the outskirts of Bucharest, which imports wholesale textiles and sells them to neighborhood stores. The minimum quantity you can buy here is a 25-kilogram sack of clothes. About the size of a giant wardrobe.
There are only two employees who handle the intake of clothes arriving at the warehouse, present them to customers, and sell them. They open one or two sacks of clothes for you, just enough to show that the goods are in good condition. The clothes are packaged by category: by size, by season, or by item type—blouses, pants, jackets, socks.
They've lost count of the clothes and the stores they supply to, and where the clothes come from. In fact, in Romania, we still don’t know exactly how many second-hand stores exist at this moment because we don’t have a clear distinction between those selling second-hand clothes and those selling other items. All we managed to find out, according to available data that we received from the National Trade Registry Office is that the number of companies involved in the trade of second-hand goods, whether clothes, books, or antiques, has increased: from 7,601 in 2020 to 7,859 last year.
On the ground, this means that the streets of both large and small cities in Romania host more and more second-hand clothing stores. The warehouses where these clothes are purchased have also expanded across almost all regions of the country, and some companies that handle clothing distribution have even opened multiple branches. A growing business.
Buying pre-worn clothes is certainly a wiser alternative than buying new, cheap clothes from fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion brands like H&M, Zara, Shein, Temu, etc. Not only because there are huge environmental issues hidden behind the clothes that catch our eye in store windows—the fashion industry is the second most polluting in the world after the energy sector—but also because of the terribly poor conditions in which many of the people who produce our clothes work.
Moreover, for many people, buying clothes is no longer a necessity but a habit nurtured by an extremely prosperous industry that grows year after year.
In 2023, the fashion industry reached a turnover of nearly 123 billion dollars, according to statista.com, almost 70 times the annual budget of Bucharest. By 2027, the figures are expected to rise to over 180 billion dollars.
A large portion of these clothes, which fuel new collections and promotions, have a very short lifespan, which only further increases the mountains of clothes for which there are currently no viable recycling solutions. The pair of synthetic pants you impulsively bought a few months ago, because they looked good and you got them at a "good price," has a high chance of spending decades, or even hundreds of years, in a landfill.
Vintage clothing, the new luxury
Buying pre-worn clothes seemed like a promising solution. The famous TikTok hauls, where users show off the dozens of second-hand clothes they've bought, have contributed to the popularity of these stores.
Generation Z is increasingly turning to vintage items to express their style more than previous generations, according to a report by ThredUp, the online platform where people can sell clothes from their wardrobes.
TikTok is full of videos showing you what a successful thrift flip looks like. For example, you can transform your oversized blazer that you no longer wear into a two-piece suit. If you're looking for the iconic yellow dress that Andy wore at the end of the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, vintage clothing accounts already have a selection ready for you to choose something nearly identical.
This new phenomenon, even though it offers a less harmful alternative compared to the fast fashion model, can also lead to excessive consumption. In the last five years, Instagram has exploded with pages created by resellers, where second-hand clothes are sold at high prices. Resellers are the ones who wake up at six in the morning, get dressed, grab three bags, and wait in front of Humana to catch the best pieces.
The story of a young woman who found a vase for three dollars at a flea market, which actually cost 100,000 dollars, showed that there is plenty of room for maneuver in this market for those looking to make more money from it. New platforms like Vinted, eBay, Etsy, as well as Instagram pages and some Facebook groups have further democratized the whole thing. In the past, you needed to have a physical vintage shop, but now everything has moved online.
We wanted to find out just how viable the alternative of second-hand clothes is, so we set off with a few simple questions: What is the path of the clothes we find in second-hand shops or vintage boutiques? What happens to them once they arrive in the country? And still, where do the unsold clothes end up?
Where Second-Hand Store Clothes Come From
Most of the time, when people want to pass on clothes they no longer wear, they can leave them in special containers in stores or public spaces. Fast fashion giants or, more recently, ultra-fast fashion (Temu, Shein) produce clothes "on the minute" at affordable prices and distribute them worldwide. These clothes easily deteriorate, and because the fashion industry constantly launches new trends, they quickly "go out of style." As a result, they end up filling numerous collection containers, some initiated locally by environmental organizations, others as part of the greenwashing efforts of companies encouraging recycling. From here, they are collected by specialized firms, other giants in the industry, which sort them.
The countries that export the most second-hand clothes are China, India, Pakistan, and Turkey, according to the Economic Observatory. In 2022 alone, the turnover of the second-hand clothing industry exceeded 85 billion dollars.
There are two ways textiles are imported, as explained by the warehouse owners we spoke with. On one hand, there is "original collection," where clothes are taken directly from containers and imported without being cleaned or sorted, and this process is carried out once they reach the destination country. On the other hand, there are sorted and cleaned clothes, packed in bags, directly taken by warehouses, and resold to stores.
Second-hand stores receive so many clothes that it is impossible to sell them all. For example, Goodwill, the online second-hand clothing platform, sells only half of the clothes it receives in physical stores. The rest go to outlet-type stores or the recovery market, where they are sold at much lower prices, and visibly stained or defective clothes are not sold at all. Some of them go to companies in need of materials, others are turned into cleaning cloths, or they are recycled. Of the clothes donated by people, only about 10% to 30% end up being purchased directly by consumers.
Greenwashing from Fast Fashion Giants
However, the life of a piece of clothing can be difficult due to the lack of international policies that hold the textile industry accountable rather than relying on self-regulation.
An experiment published on snoop.ro showed how the textile industry giants, present in Romania as well, fail to fulfill their mission of moving toward a sustainable future.
Fast fashion stores may seem like the most convenient option for people who want to give new life to clothes they no longer wear, as most stores in shopping malls have boxes for collecting used clothes. The brands claim they will do what's best with them. However, the reality is different, according to Snoop. After tracking devices were hidden in eight garments left in Zara and H&M stores in Romania, the experiment revealed that the clothes traveled tens of thousands of kilometers across various parts of the world, from Oradea or Bucharest to India, Pakistan, and Senegal. Most ended up in second-hand clothing stores.
Additionally, a hoodie left at H&M in Oradea was exported to a village in Hungary and brought back to Romania to a store in Constanța.
Currently, there is no clear traceability system for textiles, so you could even find the clothing you donated in one of these second-hand stores months later. The pair of jeans you donated might have traveled more kilometers to reach the store shelf than you did in the past month.
H&M does not take responsibility for the negligence with which it handles textiles, shifting the blame to its sorting partner, Remondis Group.
However, on its website, the Swedish giant claims that the clothes collected from them are properly taken care of. This practice is called greenwashing, a technique where brands promise to do sustainable things but, in reality, bring no positive change to the environment.
"I believe this is a systemic problem of the entire industry, I don’t think each company can create such a traceability system individually," explained climate change expert Raul Pop for Snoop.ro. More precisely, to manage textiles as efficiently as possible, all clothes produced should be included in a centralized system where anyone can know their origin, journey, and the course of their life—from manufacturing to recycling.
Mirela* opened a second-hand store four years ago in Dej, a small town near Cluj. Before, she used to sell everything: clothes, shoes, bedding, accessories. A few months ago, she gave up that model and now only sells shoes.
“There are too many stores selling clothes. The competition is fierce, and the profits just aren’t there, at least not from clothing,” says the store owner. “Especially with the current prices—too high for people to afford, and people don’t have money.”
Before, when she was also selling clothes, she often ended up with unsold items. She’d put them on sale until everything was cleared out. Even now, she still has bags of items from her old store.
“They’re at my house. I didn’t throw them away, donate them, or give them away. I occasionally list them on Marketplace or Publi24. But people want to buy a sack or two. I don’t want to sell like that. It’s all or nothing,” Mirela continues.
Georgiana*, who also runs a second-hand clothing store in the same town, follows a similar approach with clothes that don’t sell: she reduces the prices, selling everything for three or four lei, hoping to clear out stock.
“If I find cotton that’s stained or torn, it gets turned into cleaning rags. And I always leave two sacks of clothes for those who want to buy them. I sell sacks for 10 lei, with mixed clothes. If I get something like a stained blanket, I don’t bother washing it; I just sell it in a sack,” Georgiana explains.
She also collaborates with local businesses and service shops, giving them worn-out clothes to use as cleaning cloths.
Despite their efforts to repurpose clothes, much of our unsold clothing still ends up in landfills.
Legislation exists, but not for everyone
Romania produces over 35,000 tons of textile waste annually. Of this, only a little over 1,000 tons are recycled, and almost 6,000 tons are exported for recycling elsewhere, according to 2021 data from the Ministry of Environment. This means only about a quarter of our textile waste is recycled; the rest becomes polluting waste.
There are 10 authorized textile waste recycling facilities in Romania, but they seem insufficient. From 2018 to 2021, the amount recycled decreased sevenfold, even though production remained the same. Moreover, the issue of illegal waste entering the country is an ongoing problem. The Minister of Environment has repeatedly stated that "Romania is facing a problem with shipments of used textiles that are, in fact, waste." Last October, there was an attempt to introduce an ordinance to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the National Environmental Guard and the National Consumer Protection Agency in controlling shipments labeled as second-hand goods at the border. However, no legislative action followed.
Managing and handling textile waste is costly and resource-intensive. Those looking to avoid these challenges use the second-hand label for textiles that need to be recycled, skipping a few steps but polluting the environment. Even the head of the Environmental Guard mentioned that "some products leave their country as waste, and just before entering Romania, the shipment's documentation is changed to second-hand goods."
Zoltán Gündisch, president of the Romanian Association for Textile Reuse and Recycling (ARETEX) and general director of Mendola Group, part of textile recycler Roseco, says that currently, less than 30% of Romania’s industry is equipped to sort and package textile waste for recycling. Most of it ends up being used for energy recovery or is discarded as waste.
According to Romanian law, the solution to preventing waste from being disguised as second-hand goods would be to stop unsorted, dirty clothes from entering the country. However, some business owners argue that the new regulations wouldn’t apply to everyone. Additionally, this political solution has created dissatisfaction within the industry, as some importers can no longer bring in goods, forcing them to close certain warehouses.
To encourage recycling, the Ministry of Environment plans to purchase containers for voluntary waste collection centers, where people can bring waste that regular sanitation services do not pick up, such as batteries, light bulbs, televisions, textiles, etc. According to the Ministry, 546 administrative units will benefit from 597 voluntary collection centers.
Second-hand shop owners face similar issues
Georgiana* started her second-hand clothing business 15 years ago in Dej, a small town in Cluj County. Initially, she had two stores; now, she’s left with just one. There are around 50 second-hand stores in the town of 30,000 people, and residents are used to buying almost everything from them. However, she says the pressures from authorities have increased in recent years.
“Everyone suffers because of those who bring in garbage. Even those who are trying to run an honest business. Now they open the truck at the border and check if you have clothes that can’t be sold. We haven’t had any problems with this, and I hope we won’t in the future, but other second-hand stores in Dej have closed because of all the paperwork and laws.”
The goods she now brings in from Germany are “clean,” she says, as she rarely has to discard anything from the bags that arrive at her store. However, if her supplier could no longer bring her clothes in the future, Georgiana* says she would close her business.
“I couldn’t buy sorted goods from within the country because they’re too expensive, and you end up with almost nothing in the end. I’d have to raise prices, and I wouldn’t make any sales because there are so many second-hand shops in Dej, and prices are low,” she explains.
In her small shop near the center of town, customers of all ages come in. When students are in school, most sales come from them. During the summer holidays, however, the majority of customers are over 60 years old.
Young people look for brands, quality, and materials. Georgiana* observes how they know exactly what to look for or how they hunt for Adidas stripes. They know how to read labels and can quickly tell if something is fake.
In contrast, older customers don’t care as much. They often need help finding something that fits, but they mainly seek practical, utilitarian items.
In the 15 years since she opened her store, Georgiana* has seen how consumer behavior has changed. Initially, people wanted to buy anything; now, they are much more focused on how clothes are tailored and who made them.
“I have a lot of stock from H&M, Zara, Only, Marco Polo. These are the most common brands. If you look at the dresses on the racks, you can see I have Zara, all kinds,” Georgiana* says. “Collections that are newer or older. What was in fashion this summer ends up in second-hand stores next summer. It all moves quickly.”
T-shirts from Shein, ZARA, and H&M—the new "vintage"
Second-hand stores have filled up with fast fashion brands because of the rapid pace at which new collections are produced and the frequent shopping habits we’ve developed. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find quality vintage clothing in second-hand stores, with fabrics that can withstand multiple washes.
“I don’t put anything on the shelves with a Shein label because they all come in pilled or with holes. I send them to service shops to use as cleaning rags. You can’t put them in the store because they’re awful,” Georgiana* explains.
One characteristic of fast fashion is that clothes have a much shorter lifespan, forcing people to buy more. Even though it seems like a cheaper option at first, over time, you end up spending more than if you bought a more expensive product.
The woman has noticed the differences in the industry over the 15 years she’s been running her shop. Initially, people bought anything she put on the shelves. Now, customers seem more interested in materials, cuts, and brands. But this mainly happens with those who are used to shopping second-hand.
Over time, she’s also noticed how people reacted when the first fast fashion stores like Sinsay or shops selling goods from China opened in the town.
“Initially, for a few months, they killed us. But that only lasted until people saw the quality. Sure, the clothes are beautiful and colorful, right? But when the zipper breaks in the middle of winter, when you really needed that jacket... it’s not so pretty anymore.”
The emergence of products with limited lifespans, which become obsolete over time, even has a name: planned obsolescence.
Although it seems like a complicated term, the concept is quite simple: our excessive consumption habits don’t allow us to keep all the items we accumulate, so they must "die" more quickly. We use disposable cups, straws, cutlery, and even clothes are now viewed in this way.
Bridesmaid dresses ordered from Shein, worn only once and then thrown away. Jeans that lose color after one wash, or T-shirts that tear after being run through the washing machine—all of these force us to buy even more clothes.
Institutions are unaware of the extent of the issue
A solution to help both small producers and consumers make wiser choices about what they wear should come from the authorities, according to many of the people we spoke with.
In Romania, however, the institutions responsible for managing textile waste know almost nothing about second-hand clothes. They don’t know how many enter or leave the country, although the warehouse owners we spoke with only bring clothes from imports. Some say from Germany, others from Italy, and some even from Canada. An experiment published on snoop.ro showed that a warehouse claiming to sell clothes imported from Italy actually sold clothes collected from Romania.
We asked the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Economy, the National Institute of Statistics, the Environmental Guard, and the National Authority for Consumer Protection how many second-hand clothes have been imported or exported from Romania in recent years. Either they passed the responsibility to another institution or claimed they do not have such data.
For example, the Ministry of Environment redirected the request to the Ministry of Economy, while the Ministry of Economy forwarded it to the National Trade Register Office. The latter stated that the only data they have refer to how many entities are engaged in the second-hand goods trade.
The National Authority for Consumer Protection also informed us that it does not possess this information and that the Ministry of Environment would be the one responsible, thus closing the loop of institutions that do not collect such data.
Regarding how the Ministry of Environment perceives the alternative of second-hand shops, representatives of the institution conveyed that it is not a standalone solution to the enormous problems posed by the textile industry. "Other measures are needed, such as stricter regulations on textile production and promoting sustainable production methods," the response states in a very vague and general manner. Alongside these measures, a "change in consumer behavior regarding the choice of clothing items" would also be necessary. While this certainly represents part of the solution, environmental activists emphasize that the greatest responsibility for a change concerning pollution lies with companies and governments.
In the absence of self-regulation in the textile industry, one of the tangible solutions is the involvement of institutions. At the European level, there are steps being taken to slow down pollution caused by clothing.
European legislation seeks solutions
Through the European Digital Passport, anyone will be able to access information about the sustainability of the brand that produced the clothing in front of them, including what materials it is made from and the manufacturing cycle, as well as the journey from factory to store. This way, there will be no need for additional product verification measures at customs, as the life history of the garment will be known. However, this measure is currently a utopia: the legislation is still under development and is expected to be finalized by 2030.
In May 2024, the European Parliament adopted a legislative proposal to extend the lifespan of clothing by offering free repairs and extended warranties. Essentially, the set of measures aims to create a social context in which clothes are used for a longer period. European states have two years to implement this law at the national level.
Some countries have already taken the initiative to reduce the impact of fast fashion. For example, in March 2024, French politicians proposed a law that bans advertisements from companies like Shein and imposes a surcharge of up to 10 euros per item, according to BBC.
What Can Be Done?
Elvys Sandu is a designer and a member of Redu, an initiative by the Mai Bine Association, which aims to offer solutions for reducing textile waste. Sandu believes that, although the second-hand industry still has many problems, it remains a viable alternative to fast fashion brands, even if imperfect.
"I don’t think there are enough people buying from second-hand stores yet, or at least not enough to make a significant difference," says Elvys. "There’s still plenty of space for people who want to buy pre-worn clothes, and I believe this could genuinely help the environment. Choosing an already-produced clothing item is always better than opting for something that results in more clothes being produced. The solution would come from reducing consumption. We should be more careful and aware when purchasing new things."
The designer believes that to reduce textile waste and the negative impacts of fast fashion, a holistic approach is needed, similar to the one Redu takes. They don't just produce collections but work on multiple fronts:
“We don’t use new materials, for instance, and we try to source locally produced materials. Besides aiming for minimal environmental impact, we also run workshops teaching people how to repair their clothes if needed or how to do upcycling.”
They have also organized swapping events, where people exchanged clothes, as well as film screenings highlighting the struggles of workers in Asian garment factories. These are all small steps aimed at educating consumers about their buying habits.
“The swapping events allowed you to catch up with friends, bring some clothes, and buy something second-hand,” continues the designer. “That way, you stayed away from the mall and the temptation to buy new products. You learn more about clothes when they’re close to you.”
Local solutions for less waste
REDU began in 2014 when members of the Mai Bine Association, which aims to educate people about sustainable development and sustainable alternatives, sought solutions to the problem of textile waste in Iași.
Since then, it has become an independent social enterprise. In its first two years, it operated clothing collection centers in all neighborhoods of Iași. Gradually, they also started collecting from factories or local shops that no longer needed those pieces of material. "In addition to that, we held workshops on how to repair clothes, and we organized Bazar Solidar, an event where some of the clothes we collected that were in good condition were either sold or repaired and sold," recounts Elvys Sandu, who studied design at the University of Iași and wrote a dissertation on the impact of slow fashion.
A significant portion of the clothes was given to the Emmaus Foundation, which then distributed them to people in genuine need.
Additionally, REDU prepared two collections from the clothes they collected. Later, the clothes were sold in a temporary store they had near their workshop.
At one point, however, they had to stop collecting clothes because they could no longer keep up. People had gotten used to the containers where they could leave their clothes but didn’t consider what happened to them once they dropped them off. They took advantage of having a place to discard what they no longer wore, but it was far too difficult for a small organization to handle the amount of textile waste they were collecting.
This led them to abandon post-consumer clothing and focus on materials collected from factories.
“There, another problem arose because we were constrained by the dimensions of the materials we were collecting. We collect these cutoffs or scraps that remain after the products are cut. We tried to find solutions, thinking of all sorts of products that would be adapted to those dimensions. We found a few that sold better and that we kept,” Elvys Sandu continues. One example is bags made from men’s dress shirts.
Currently, they are also working on some European projects, contributing what they have learned over the past few years about textile waste. One of these projects aims to develop two solutions they have identified over time.
One is a digital software that factories they collaborate with can use after preparing their cutting plans. This way, there would be more predictability regarding the resources received. The second product is a website that brings together textile waste producers, individuals looking to purchase specific materials, design students, and companies that need certain materials.
In the nine years since Redu was established, Elvys says they haven’t faced many obstacles aside from competition with very cheap products. However, they still have plenty of issues to solve, such as not knowing the exact composition of the materials at the moment. They hope to address this with the new digital software.
“For recycling to work well, you need to know what materials are in the composition,” explains Andreea Sofronea, co-manager and designer at Redu. “Ideally, if you have two materials, one of them should be at a maximum of 5%. It’s not that simple with recycling either. It seems easy because we keep hearing about it, but it’s not quite like that.”
Back to the people: awareness, education, reuse
Reusing textiles is considered the best solution for managing textile waste, according to experts, while landfilling is at the opposite end of the spectrum. A European study showed that reusing textiles has a 70 times lower negative impact on the environment. However, this requires significant investment in recycling technologies to enable the separate collection of textiles.
Romania's poor performance in selective waste collection is evident to anyone who takes a stroll around residential blocks and looks at the bins where people throw their trash. For several years now, Romania has been last in the EU regarding municipal waste production and recycling, with a recycling rate of 14%, compared to the European average of around 43%.
In this complicated context, where no simple answers seem to be on the horizon, those who have long been active in the textile industry say that a solution can come from education and awareness.
Mariana Stan is the coordinator of the Fashion Revolution team in Romania. She has collaborated with Glamour magazine and has over 15 years of experience in PR, focusing on sustainability, migration, human rights, media, and marketing.
The Fashion Revolution movement began after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, when an eight-story garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 people who were making clothes for major brands. Since then, founders Orsola de Castro, a designer focused on slow fashion techniques and upcycling, and Carry Somers, a British fashion designer, have decided to advocate for fair labor practices in the textile industry and for transparency in the processes behind the clothes we wear.
“In Romania, we started with the educational component. We reached out to young people through online campaigns and tried to make them understand who makes the clothes they wear,” Stan explains. “We aimed to raise awareness, and we noticed they are becoming increasingly attentive to these details and are very responsible, trying to come up with more solutions.”
They began with a simple question: “What can you do with 100 kg of clothes you no longer wear?” and encouraged people to donate the clothing items they had forgotten in their wardrobes, which became part of the Manifest Collection created by fashion design students.
In 2023, Fashion Revolution created a clothing collection with students from the National University of Arts in Bucharest (UNARTE) for Fashion Revolution Week, an event that commemorates the events at Rana Plaza each year.
Like REDU, Fashion Revolution Romania also had a period during which it collected clothes from people. Currently, they have paused this initiative because they realized they lack the necessary infrastructure, although the need among people still exists and is growing. They have provided a guide for those who want to part with clothes they no longer wear, showing them where they can take their items and how those items should look when left at collection bins.
Facing the Producer
Alternatives to mall clothing often come from designers trying to do things differently: more ethically and less harmfully for the environment.
Iuliana Pîslaru, a fashion designer and seamstress from Constanța, moved to Cluj-Napoca at the age of 23. Since 2019, she has organized a market for local artisans called RoCreator. She learned to sew at the Popular School of Arts in Constanța and later from online tutorials. Now, she offers sewing classes for beginners and shares sewing tips on Instagram.
Through RoCreator, Iuliana and her husband aim to connect small producers with buyers. “We encourage creators to engage with customers, whether they buy or not. The idea is to show them how the products are made, what materials are used, how many hours they work, and what their creative process is. This helps in educating and changing mindsets.”
Iuliana uses scraps and leftover fabric from large factories. Initially, she didn’t pay much attention to the fiber composition of the fabrics, but now she tries to use only natural materials.
To change mindsets, she posts methods for repairing clothes and sewing tips on her Instagram account. Iuliana also organizes sewing courses: “More than half of the participants, after spending five hours in a sewing class, change their mindset a bit. They leave with the idea that making a piece of clothing is not that easy. Look at how many resources go into it, how much the material costs, how much the thread costs, and how much work it takes to create a product.”
Through her sewing courses, she wants to empower people to start making their own clothes. “Many girls who come to my classes tell me: My mom had a sewing machine, my grandma did. Almost every household had a sewing machine for small repairs. This helps foster a mindset of not throwing things away immediately, no matter what it is.”
After this marathon of problems and solutions, we are left with the question: Where should we buy our clothes? Most options in the textile industry seem to have harmful implications for the environment and people.
According to The Guardian, there are so many clothes in the world that they could dress six more generations, but the textile industry is not yet prepared to manage this massive amount. The implementation of legislative initiatives takes years, both at the European and national levels.
Clothing comes from an industry where consumer behavior is also a significant factor. When we see hauls with dozens of garments and new trends on TikTok, or when we pass by a storefront stocked with new models, we can think twice before filling our cart: Do we really need these clothes while many remain untouched in our closets? Where will this new garment ultimately end up?
Although the greatest power lies with producers and lawmakers, all of us who purchase clothing can tip the balance: when we choose to buy less, reuse more, and be mindful of where we source our clothing or where we donate used items. As Elvys Sandu says, “The solution cannot come just from a research lab saying, ‘We’ve found the perfect material!’ Even if we end up producing only that material, I’m sure at some point it will become unsustainable because it will use other resources. The idea is to have variety and as many alternatives as possible, not just one.”
Authors note: The names of secondhand shop owners have been changed because they did not wish to disclose their identities. We chose to present them this way to provide some context about the secondhand clothing industry, including those in rural areas where people are more accustomed to them.
This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.
