How do second-hand sites emit more pollution than we think?

Find the first part of this article "Second-hand fashion: Vinted and Vestiaire Collective, a circular economy?"

Clothing from large retailers massively supplies the online second-hand market. Unfortunately, second-hand fast fashion remains fast fashion: a low-end item of clothing made of synthetic material derived from petroleum (23), a concentrate of pollution (24) made in Bangladesh for 0.32 US $/hour ( 23), which will have traveled 20,000 km (25) to reach us.

Sell ​​used to buy new

Conversely, the second-hand market continuously feeds the first-hand market. The big brands still have a bright future ahead of them. Indeed, according to a study carried out by the firm Boston Consulting Group for the Vestiaire Collective website, for 70% (26) of users, reselling second-hand is a way of increasing their purchasing power on the first-hand market. hand. Same observation on the side of The RealReal, an essential American luxury second-hand website (27): the majority of its sellers use the money earned to buy first-hand pieces. As soon as the item is resold online, the consumer returns to the store to purchase the latest collection.

Under the guise of ecological awareness, online second-hand is above all an opportunity to make ends meet and make good deals, without having to cut corners. The proof is that the average price per item is 15 euros on Vinted (13) and 71% of Vestiaire Collective (26) buyers would not have the means to afford these brands first hand.

The environmental impact of such a practice

Except that the two pillars of this economic model are not carbon neutral and abusing it causes real impacts on our environment:

The computer servers where the website data is stored operate continuously and are large consumers of electricity, mostly from coal-fired power stations (data processing, server cooling, emergency generators (28)...). It is estimated that 67 million (29) the number of servers would be stored in 5,000 (30) to 8,000 data centers, each requiring as much electricity as a city of 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants (28). Consumption that increases exponentially every year with the development of the number of ever more energy-consuming websites.

Delivery is negotiated by the parent companies with international carriers over increasingly long distances (from the Netherlands to Spain for Vinted, from France to the USA for Vestiaire Collective). In Europe, 88% of it is done by truck (31), responsible for the deterioration of the roads (a 40-tonne truck damages as many as 60,000 cars), serious accidents linked to the pressure of timing on drivers, 4,200 km (31) of traffic jams per day in Germany, fine particle pollution which causes 48,000 premature deaths (31) per year in France...

Finally, this new mode of consumption uses the same levers as fast fashion, with the same objective of exponential globalized growth: discounts on prices, strong presence on the internet, rarity, renewal of collections, excessive offer, fluidity, ease and speed of purchase, transport of orders over long distances... Even if we can welcome the extension of the lifespan of products and their democratization, the service is not thought of in a global and circular way, there is still a lot to do to reduce its carbon footprint.

Raphaël Guastavi, head of the products and material efficiency department at ADEME defines sustainable fashion as a local circular economy (32) for economic, ecological and social benefits:

Currently, fashion remains a polluting and energy-intensive industry. Unfortunately, the consumer must learn to curb his buying pleasure and ask himself if he really needs something new. Because anyway, even green, infinite growth is only an illusion of capitalism. By 2050 we will have to return to a healthy and moderate lifestyle like the one we had in the 60s and 70s in order to avoid global warming of more than 2°C. For this, France will have to emit 80 megatons of CO2 (33) per year. If between 1995 and 2018, domestic emissions decreased by 30% (34) "thanks" to the deindustrialization of the country, at the same time, imported emissions increased by 78% (34) over the same period, i.e. a cumulative total of 749 megatons (34) of CO2.

Long live the garage sales! Long live exchanges between friends! Long life to local associations!

Our expert:

Designer and scenographer, graduate of a Master's degree with a specialty in eco-design, Julie Carbonaro has now been working for more than 10 years with industrialists and manufacturers all over the world.

She set up the Utopylogie website to support consumers, help them untangle and understand the issues and mechanisms of the industry and thus enable them to arbitrate among the abundance of offers and commercial arguments. .

The website: Utopylogie. You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook.

Sources:

23- The cost of fashion, Utopylogie, 2021 https://utopylogie.wordpress.com/2021/01/06/le-cout-de-la-mode/24- Fashion, a polluting industry, Utopylogie, 2020 https ://utopylogie.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/la-mode-polluante/25- Report Fast Fashion, Xenius, Arte www.arte.tv/fr/videos/RC-014038/xenius/26- Luxe de second hand, a 12% growth market per year, BCG, 2019 https://www.bcg.com/fr-fr/press/15oct2019-luxe-de-seconde-main-un-marche-a-12- de-croissance-par-a27- Is reselling clothes on the internet good for the planet? Marie Claire https://www.marieclaire.fr/revendre-vetements-ecologie,1339746.asp28- The invisible pollution of the net, Le Parisien, 2017 https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/la-pollution-invisible- du-net-10-01-2017-6546294.php29- The hidden face of digital, Ademe, 2021 https://www.ademe.fr/sites/default/files/assets/documents/guide-pratique-face-cachee -numerique.pdf30- Data centers: the best equipped countries, Hub Institute, 2021 https://hubinstitute.com/2021/DigitalBusiness/Data/Transformation/Infographie-DataCenter-Statista-Cloudscene-EtatsUnis-Europe-France31- Reportage Putains trucks, Heavyweights in question, Arte, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfxRTBjDCPw32- Did you say sustainable fashion? Ademe, 2021 https://infos.ademe.fr/dossier/mode-durable33- Disruption day: this Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the French State begins its climate overdraft, Greenpeace, 2021 https://www.greenpeace.fr /press-room/day-of-deregulation-this-Wednesday-March-17-2021-the-french-state-begins-its-climate-discovery/34- Greenhouse gases: the growing weight of imported emissions, Vie Publique , 2020 https://www.vie-publique.fr/en-bref/276617-empreinte-carbone-et-emissions-importees-de-gaz-effet-de-serre