Second Hand September is a campaign to encourage people to buy only second hand items for 30 days in the month of September. Apart from underwear and hiking boots, all my clothing is second hand anyway, but if you've not yet got the second hand habit, this is a great way to start.
Second Hand September is a project from Oxfam, which is a global charity working to eradicate poverty. it also manages a large chain of second hand shops in the UK, including excellent second hand bookshops as well as general second hand shops selling everything from clothing to homeware.
The fashion industry has a large carbon footprint, for example manufacturing a new pair of jeans emits around 16.2kg of CO2 – the equivalent of driving over 58 miles in a car.
By recirculating our clothes – buying, wearing and donating second hand
– we can help to reduce the demand for new clothes, reduce the amount of clothing going to landfill and reduce emissions. Here is Oxfam's guide to sustainable shopping.
It's also helpful to look after the clothes you already have. A great way to make your clothes last longer is to repair them in creative ways, as discussed in this blogpost from Oxfam. I like making creative repairs myself, on this blog post, you can read about the satin cuffs I made to repair a favourite blouse.
I realise that I should have written this post earlier in the month, but it's never too late to start buying second hand!
Oxfam's biggest fundraising campaign at the moment is the Pakistan Floods Appeal. You can find out more about this humanitarian disaster and donate to the appeal here.
5 comments:
My daughter and I love to shop at the resale stores. My daughter is especially good at finding cute clothes with bargain prices.
What a good idea. I would never buy second hand shoes/boots or underwear, I own a lot of second hand dress pants and sports coats and even a few suits. And the only tie that I remember purchasing this century that wasn't second hand, I purchased in Mongolia! A few months ago, in a second hand store next to a bike shop where I was having work done, I even found a Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead) tie that he'd designed. That was quite a find and cost me $2.
My grandie went shopping for school clothes and visited a 2nd hand store.
My sons did that a lot, too.
Good job.
Hi Jeff, sounds like you have an interesting tie collection!
Hi Jenn, sounds like you've got a bit of a family tradition of shopping second hand.
You can often find many good things in charity shops like Oxfam.
All the best Jan
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