A few years ago, while having lunch with colleagues in my previous newsroom, we started talking about thrift stores. One of my co-workers said, “I get all of my clothes from thrift stores,” and quickly added, “I’m not trying to brag though.” And I thought: How great that she sees thrifting as something to brag about. She’s not alone. In the U.S., recommerce is a $200 billion per year market and growing. As the holiday season approaches, researchers find an increasing number of people are turning to secondhand gifts. A survey in Europe found 64% of Europeans see secondhand gifts as a good way to save money and shop more sustainably. A 2022 survey in the U.S. found roughly half of Generation Z planned to purchase secondhand gifts. The stigma of used items can be hard to overcome, but not impossible. “To be viewed as a suitable gift, a secondhand item must meet certain standards,” says Ilya Malkin, CEO and co-founder of Sort A Brick, a company that uses AI to sort mixed bins of plastic Lego bricks and repackage them into new sets. Malkin adds that secondhand gifts need to “perform well, look presentable and be safe to use.” Regifted and thrifted gifts typically come without excess packaging that can end up in a landfill or the ocean. And, as part of a circular economy, existing items require far less energy and fewer resources than newly manufactured products, making them a win for the planet and your wallet. Do’s: Cast…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Início » Regifting and thrifting for sustainable holiday gift ideas
