Recession: Second Hand Shopping

The Recession has seen many changes over the past months. Businesses everywhere are feeling the pinch as people spend less. Charities have been hit especially badly as donations fall and the number of those in need of their help become greater.

However two seemingly separate emerging problems have the opportunity to partially solve each other.

Charity shops are running low on product donations as demand for second hand goods picks up in these frugal times. Meanwhile the government has called for greater measures to reduce the environmental impact of disposable fashion.

In theory there seems to be a simple solution here – people should ‘donate’ more of their unwanted clothes to charity shops rather than landfill. In practice of course it is much more complex than this and one complexity is the culture of fast fashion. It has made poor quality and transience acceptable, meaning that much of the two millions tons of clothing sent to landfill every year is presumably no longer desirable or wearable. With the demand for saving money at every opportunity during the harder economic times, there is a much greater demand for second hand clothes at charity shops everywhere. Although we do not recommend donating your old lingerie…

Oxfam, suffering from a 12% drop in donations since the recession began, have launched an online store for second hand clothes, second hand books and charity gifts in a bid to increase funding for their humanitarian campaigns.

Knotty problems often require a range of solutions. But as stakeholders in the sustainability challenge surely we all need to step up. Ethical communications agency Futerra has done just that organising Swishing clothes swapping parties across the country. Asos is said to be considering a platform for customers to sell their own goods online, similar to Amazon. But until fast fashion loses its gloss, more forums need to be created to coax young people to recycle better quality items in their wardrobes. The Red Cross has a specialist designer shop in Chelsea, so could charities with particular relevance to young people (Raleigh International, VSO) earmark certain stores for young fashion and/or could other environmental stakeholders get involved? There is scope for more collaboration with big businesses too – Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s have pledged to increase their range of Fair Trade and organic clothing – but is that enough or should they be more pro-active in developing meaningful partnerships with ethical and environmental bodies?

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