Photo property of Poor Little Rich Girl
On Day 5 of "10 Easy Ways to Save the World Without Growing Out Your Armpit Hair" we are going to celebrate the world-saving power of simply buying vintage.
There are plenty of reasons to buy gently used or vintage clothing and furniture: it's unique, has a history and it can be an investment. It's also recycling! Buying clothes and furniture from a local second-hand shop or antique store is beneficial to you and your community by:
Found on Craigslist this morning for $50.
Everything you buy second-hand gets another life and thereby skips it's fate in the landfill.
Saving on gas consumption and air pollution
By not having your new dresser delivered to you in a big, gas-guzzling delivery truck from a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, you're saving precious natural resources and keeping exhaust out of the air. Good job!
Buying local helps the local economy
Money spent locally stays local. It's the easiest way to boost your own town's economy. In an article in Time magazine on the topic they said that "Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going, when money is spent elsewhere—at big supermarkets, non-locally owned utilities and other services such as on-line retailers—it flows out, like a wound."
Keeping Pesticides out of the Soil
The average conventional cotton t-shirt takes 150 grams of pesticides to produce. According to one study, America throws away two quadrillion pounds of used clothing each year. Wow. Getting the most out of vintage clothing will eventually slow the demand for these new items and keep some dangerous pesticides out of our soil and our water table.
Some of my favorite local places to find vintage treasures are
Craigslist,
Freecycle,
the Cambridge Antique Market,
Poor Little Rich Girl,
The Garment District,
The Collector on Highland Ave. (brand new!),
Goodwill
and rest in peace, Savers.
Go shopping and save the world! Pin It
Thank you so much for giving me justification for keeping the tshirts I still have from high school. The next time my wife complains, I'll remind her that I'm saving the world.
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