Buying second hand clothes: Why Vinted makes sense
Affordable second-hand fashion that cuts waste and challenges fast fashion habits
Jonathan Sear
January 20, 2026
Why I Buy Second Hand and the Rise of Vinted?
I have always been an advocate of buying second hand, to a degree this is down to the obvious affordability relative to buying brand new, but I have become increasingly aware of the staggering scale of overconsumption and resulting waste in the modern world.
When I was younger, I would go around the house selling items on eBay, this was my introduction to second hand buying and selling. Whether these things were still wanted was not my concern, my interest in the second hand market was peaked, the unexpected finds and the easy money that could be made from selling. From there I stumbled across Vinted, the rapidly rising recommerce giant is leading the way in second hand clothing. Could this be an affordable and sustainable answer to fast fashion?
The problems with fast fashion
Fast fashion is the rapid design, production and selling of cheap clothing, as a result, every year, 92 million tonnes of textiles end up in land fill. According to the UN Environment Programme, the fast fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water and responsible for around 10% of global carbo emission. The world consumes around 85 billion new items of clothing every year, a number growing year on year due to economic consumerism and short term single use thinking. With statistics like these in mind, it feels good to know that buying a second hand item of clothing increases the life span of the item and keeps it in circulation, reducing demand on our planet’s already depleting resources.
Sustainability meets affordability
Vinted is a platform on which you can buy second hand clothing for a fraction of the price of the new version, often items are brand new with tags, but still at a cut price. In my mind the sustainable and affordable aspect of Vinted creates some guilt free buying, knowing that the community of vinted users are collectively doing their bit to reduce textile waste, slowing down consumption and becoming involved in a circular economy.
The creation of a mini circular economy within Vinted is something I have noticed with my own buying and selling. After selling my own old clothes that I don’t wear, the money stays on the app as your balance, which you can of course take out but I use to fund my next purchase. When a purchase is not quite right, I relist it and try to get the money back into my balance, keeping the loop rolling, sustainably getting rid of old clothes and making a little bit of money for the effort of listing a few photos.
Finding bargains and hidden gems
Another aspect of Vinted that I enjoy is the fun of finding a hidden gem, something great at a low price, sending a bold offer to the seller and waiting for the acceptance or decline. It turns the buying process into a fun negotiation rather than a simple exchange, this feels much better to me than buying at full retail price , something that I find myself reluctant to do nowadays, with the exception of jeans and shoes!
I would really recommend we all start looking into using Vinted more as it can really open your eyes to such an easy way of reducing waste and limiting the demand on brand new clothing.
Overconsumption still exists, what can we do?
With the rise in recommerce being a great way to embrace sustainability, it does bring the issue that whilst buying second hand does reduce the amount of clothing ending up in landfill in the short term, once we are done with them they are just as likely to end up in landfill in the end. As a result of our general addiction to consumption, it is very difficult to simply limit our buying, whether second hand or new, to just what we need, the best thing we can do is simply buy less. Second hand shopping on Vinted is a great place to start, next time you are online shopping, consider browsing Vinted instead and find the same clothes for such a reduced price.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, Jonathan Sear, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Recycle More, Valpak Limited, or any other organisation.