Does Shopping Secondhand Actually Reduce Overall Clothing Consumption?

Secondhand shopping has long been a go-to option for the environmentally conscious. The logic behind this is just plain common sense: buying pre-owned clothing keeps goods in use and therefore out of landfills longer. In theory, it can also reduce demand for brand-new things and thus prevent the extraction of raw materials to make them. That second point is only true, though, if making a secondhand purchase means you made one less purchase of something new. Whether or not that’s what happens for the average resale shopper is hard to prove. But a recent study commissioned by luxury retailer Farfetch in partnership with QSA, ICARO and the London Waste and Recycling Board suggests there’s some merit to that assumption. According to the report, 65% of secondhand clothing purchases in the U.S. and UK did in fact prevent the purchase of something new. Read more at Fashionista.