I love that more Americans are starting to buy things that are secondhand.
I think that's the right way to go.
I'm a big proponent of this.
>> I knew you'd love this story.
>> It's so good.
So the Washington Post had a piece this week that I absolutely loved because
it talked about the statistics behind how Americans are shopping.
And look, there's a dark side to this because I think due to inflation and
due to the economic conditions that Americans are living under, they feel like
they have no choice but to save money by resorting to various apps that allow for
them to buy secondhand products, whether it's clothing, video games, whatever.
I mean, you could buy anything secondhand these days, and
there are wonderful apps that make it far easier to do so.
But there's a positive benefit to this that's even bigger than how much
money you could save.
And it has to do with sustainability.
It has to do with less waste, and through your behavior,
essentially doing something that could be beneficial for the planet, right?
Now, I don't believe that all of the onus should be placed on the individual when it
comes to combating climate change.
However, if you can save money and do something that's far more sustainable for
the planet, I think this is a good way to do it.
So let's talk about it.
So in this piece, they write that in the past year,
roughly half of Americans have bought used clothing.
And that's according to Global Data, a market research firm,
a figure that's expected to rise.
And again, I'm a huge proponent of this,
especially when it comes to buying clothing.
One of the things I like to do, and
it's a little bit of a life hack, I like to go to the store,
I like to go to clothing stores that are far too expensive for me.
Try on the clothing, I like the clothing, but I'm not gonna buy retail.
So then I go on Poshmark and I look for the exact same dress.
And usually I could find it for a lot cheaper.
>> Yeah. >> Sometimes I could find it brand new.
There's a lot of rich people out there who love to go buy things, never wear it, and
then they're like, they put it up on Poshmark.
I buy it there brand new for like half the price, sometimes even less than that.
>> Yeah, so first of all, I didn't know you were a hacker, okay?
Cuz you- >> Life hacker.
>> You hacked the bejes out of that life hack.
>> [LAUGH] Yes.
>> That makes a lot of sense. And for women,
I think this makes even more sense cuz a lot of times dresses are worn
just a couple of times, especially if they're fancy dresses.
I mean, how many occasions do you have to wear them, right?
So there'll be a bunch of dresses in the closet that people have worn one to
three times.
Big deal, right?
There's obviously a giant range of used, and
there are some used clothes you do not want.
But a lot of this stuff no one's ever worn because of the return policy.
So we can get into that too.
>> Yes.
>> Here, I'll give you some of the stats.
So it turns out at the stores 8% of the stuff is returned, okay,
well, maybe they tried it on once, but that's it.
Online 20% of the stuff is returned.
But when it's online and clothing 40% are returned.
So that means that probably, at most, it's been worn once.
Now, look, there might be a reason they returned it, right?
Maybe- >> It didn't fit.
>> It didn't fit, but maybe it didn't fit because of that person,
maybe it didn't fit cuz it's the wrong size.
I got you, but overall, you're gonna give me a giant discount
on something that was worn once and I could wash.
And you already wash, presumably, I hope, right?
Maybe- >> By the way, you can wash it.
That's why I have no problem buying secondhand clothing.
It's not like I don't have the ability to wash it and wear it, and as long as it's
in good condition, it doesn't have holes in it or something like that.
I mean, it's a big win.
So let me give you some more info on this.
So US retailers churn out a record $5 trillion in new goods each year,
and that's according to the National Retail Federation.
At the same time, the surge in e-commerce is flooding the market with unsold
inventory, returns and secondhand items.
So one of the things that I also love is places like T.J.Maxx, right?
Like, all of the excess inventory, I think,
gets sold by those types of stores, like the Nordstrom Racks,
the Marshalls Ross, T.J.Maxx. Also some stuff that's, like, slightly defective.
It'll be all right no one's gonna check the hem on your dress shirt
except Cenk I feel like you got to be a little more careful.
>> [LAUGH] First of all, I'm a disaster anyway, you got it.
But it's funny you say that,
because what I was gonna say is I used to do the old school version of this.
We'd go to Marshalls and we'd buy the irregulars, right?
And you'd look through all the irregulars and
be like, I found one that fits mom, okay?
>> [LAUGH] >> So that's some old school stuff right
there is new fangled way of doing it.
>> Love it.
So let's go to graphic five.
In America alone, an estimated 11.3 million tons of
textile waste end up in landfills on a yearly basis.
That's equivalent to approximately 81.5 pounds per person per year and
around 2150 pieces per second countrywide.
So I say that because you could cut down on that waste,
especially that textile waste, if you, number one, forego fast fashion.
And instead, if you're gonna buy new clothing, invest in good quality
clothing that tends to be a little more classic, less trendy, right?
Trends go out of style real quick, and if you're into fast fashion,
the quality is not gonna be there.
You're gonna spend money, it's gonna be cheaper, but it'll fall apart quickly.
And that increases the textile waste that we're talking about here.
By 2030,
we are expected to be discarding more than 134 million tons of textiles a year.
>> Jesus, man, we are so incredibly wasteful.
We've got to find more ways to take advantage of this stuff that's left over.
This is just the tip of the iceberg what we could do.
We've told you stories before where sometimes they'll have T-shirts and
hats and everything ready for both sides in a Super Bowl if they win,
because they put them on right away after the Super Bowl.
That's how people figure it out.
So when the team loses, they send it a lot of times to Latin American countries.
So there'll be all these hilarious wrong Super Bowl winner merchandise all over
Latin America.
>> [LAUGH] I love that.
>> [LAUGH] Yeah, it's hilarious.
So, like, hey, in Honduras, the Eagles might have won the Super Bowl [LAUGH] last
time around, but, hey, you know what?
That's wonderful.
That's getting good use out of perfectly good clothing.
And that's the point here.
Let's do way more of this.
>> Absolutely, and globally, the fashion industry is responsible for
10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with textile production alone estimated to
release 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.
Vast amounts of water are also needed to produce the clothes we wear, and
the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global waste water.
So look, again, I am not one of those people who wants to shame others and
their personal behavior and how it contributes to climate change.
However, if you're looking for, I think, a relatively easy and
beneficial and cost effective way to both help the environment and
also save money, I think this is a good way to do it.
So I just wanna fast forward to some of the sites that you can go to if
you're interested in trying this out.
Of course, there's eBay, I just bought a sweater off eBay the other day.
I wore, like, a cute little poodle sweater this week.
>> Yeah, yeah. >> Bought that on eBay.
Poshmark is my personal favorite.
There's also Depop, which unfortunately was just bought by Etsy.
So there's a lot of crossover there.
I like it when you have separate platforms that sell separate things, but
nonetheless and then there's thredUP as well.
>> Okay, so, by the way, none of those are sponsors.
>> No, they're not.
>> Just doing a public service there.
>> And also, I wanna help you guys out if you're interested in trying this, so.