With companies like Shein, Zara, and H&M flooding the stores, we’re led to believe that fast fashion is the best way to stock our closets. The reality is far from it; fashion is destroying our planet. That’s why shopping for vintage and secondhand clothing is a much better alternative.

New pants for less than $20 USD. At first, we might think we’re getting quite a bargain, but how can a fashion garment cost that little? The answer is: cheap materials and underpaid work in developing countries where people can get paid as little as $5 USD per day. These conditions are grotesque and worrisome—but there’s even more downside to supporting fast fashion. If you’re a fashionista concerned about protecting the planet but still having a cool closet, the best way is to buy secondhand clothing.

Yes, we’re talking about used clothes. Pieces that had one (or a few) previous owners and now it's ready for a novel life. We need to stop buying every other week and throwing things away when the new season comes around. Why? Because clothes that go in the bin become trash that ends up in the landfills–or polluting our rivers and oceans. Every year, Americans alone get rid of about 12.8 million tons (21 billion pounds) of textiles, which represents about 36 kilograms (80 pounds) per person—with only 14% of it being recycled.

There’s a direct link between the fabric we produce and water scarcity; cotton is the main ingredient in fashion, requiring 2,700 liters of water—just to make one t-shirt! This is equivalent to almost 20,000 liters (5283 gallons) of water to yield one kilogram of virgin cotton (2.2 lbs). And we haven’t even factored in the amount of pesticides and insecticides it requires: 11% and 24% of global sales of these chemicals, respectively, are destined to keep industrial cotton growing to supply the global fashion industry.

Depending on where you live, you might have access to vintage stores or charity shops where people donate clothes they don’t need anymore (i.e. Goodwill or Salvation Army are the most popular in the USA). There are also a few online marketplaces such as DePop, ThredUp, and Thrifted where you can buy AND sell clothes. This circular economy allows us to completely redo our closets every few months without having to resort to buying from corporations responsible for the climate crisis.