mixtape #4: how to actually shop sustainably in 2024

more on style recipes, overconsumption, intentional thrifting, and the five-year rule

I received a notification on my phone from my well-known acquaintance, Poshmark, the other day. It read something like, Want to shop sustainably this year? Shop these recent listings.

Being on the thrifty side of the internet means that you’ve heard a lot of discourse about resellers, complained about local thrift stores gouging prices, and seen death threats in comment sections of fast fashion buyers. In between the lines, you might’ve heard the mantra, “No ethical consumption under capitalism.” This last sentiment holds the most truth, and yet is the least practiced.

My beef here is not with resellers, nor with anyone who does anything to prevent millions of tons of clothing from being dumped into landfills. But you know those $400 Shein hauls you might’ve seen on your feed? It’s a pure example of gross overconsumption, but so are the 15-pound thrift hauls from folks who shove the clothes in the back of their closet and forget about it.

Overconsumption isn’t just TikTok shop selling tempting trinkets for the cheap price of $2.99; it’s also the folks who are impulse-buying from their thrift stores—or any store, for that matter—so they can do massive clothing hauls, never wear the clothes or tire of it quickly, and donate everything back to a thrift store or even throw it away (I’ve seen too much clothing in dumpsters at the end of a semester). This ultimately contributes to the never-ending cycle—the clothes ends up in a landfill regardless, and thrift stores continue to raise their prices, preventing those from getting affordable clothes who truly need it.