Put the “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan into even better practice—donate more and thrift often. There’s something unique and fullfilling about heading to a thrift store and finding a unique piece of clothing that fits your style perfectly. But did you know how thrifting is good for the planet ?

One of thrifting’s biggest advantages for the planet is that it keeps clothes out of landfills. People now more than ever are recognizing that the clothes they no longer want will make much more of an impact when donated and brought to thrift stores, rather than tossed in the garbage. When clothes are thrown away, they sit in landfills for hundreds of years. Especially now that a lot of clothing is made out of synthetic material that won’t degrade, these clothes tossed into landfills take up a vast amount of space and contribute to the greenhouse gases plaguing our planet. Even clothes made out of organic materials won’t biodegrade properly in landfills and will output methane gas. When customers donate clothes and shop secondhand with us, they’re playing a great role in keeping clothes out of landfills.

Another significant way thrifting is good for the planet is that it lowers your carbon footprint. We often think that the only way we can do this is by biking to work instead of driving but thrifting is one of those steps to reducing our carbon footprint that doesn’t take much effort. All it asks is that you head to a thrift store rather than engage in online or fast-fashion shopping. We mention fast fashion because now more than ever, a ton of energy goes into clothing manufacturing. The whole process—transportation of raw materials to the production processes and shipping to stores—takes up a plethora of energy and time. The fashion industry is moving faster than ever, creating millions of clothing items every day to fill up the stores every week. When you buy secondhand, you’re preventing that massive waste of energy and resources on the production of new clothes. Thrifting is an easy way to make a difference in your own carbon footprint and take the small steps to lower the world’s.

Clothing production is a process that takes up a lot of time and energy. Water consumption is extremely high in every single stage of clothing production. Take a cotton T-shirt, for example. When made unsustainably, even simply growing one kilogram of cotton requires at least 10,000 liters of water. That’s just the beginning of the production process. There’s wet processing and printing, packaging and transportation processes—all these steps add to the overall water consumption. When you shop secondhand, you’re playing a part in preserving water. Textile recycling is a part of the whole “reduce, reuse, recycle” mentality, and water preservation is just as important as that. When you recycle clothing—either donating or thrifting—you’re preserving water.

For us, at Archive Berlin, Sustainability is a everyday way of life more than an one-time event. Sustainability means that all of us must care about our clothes and keep them alive in a circular way as long as possible. If you have any questions about our supplly chain, sourcing or our process of curation, please email us for more informations and details at info@archiveberlin.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.