Kid to Kid Celebrates Earth Day
April 22, 2022 is Earth Day. Around the world, people use this day to appreciate our planet and take steps to preserve it. Kid to Kid is joining in on the love for the environment by emphasizing the same sustainable practices we embody all year long.
Resale, by definition, is a sustainable way of doing business that has far-reaching effects on the planet and its resources. It’s why so many of our owners and shoppers are dedicated to our secondhand clothing business model! Take a closer look at how we show our love to Mother Nature at Kid to Kid.
Reduced waste
Fashion is one of the world’s most pollutive industries, and this is made worse by the growing trend of fast fashion—low-quality garments made to be worn and discarded quickly. Every year, 32 billion garments are produced for the U.S. fashion market. Unfortunately, 64% of them end up in landfills, which results in millions of pounds of textile waste annually.
Upcycling clothing is one of the best ways to reduce waste that clutters landfills around the globe. Placing clothing in a new household can extend its usable life by years! Kid to Kid’s resale model helps keep clothing out of landfills longer and reduces the demand for new garments, ultimately resulting in less waste overall.
Less water used
People don’t often think about how much water is used—and polluted—during clothing production. The facts are often staggering! It takes 700 gallons of water to produce a single cotton T-shirt. Worse, it might take 2,000 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans! On a global scale, that’s an enormous amount of water being used by the fashion industry.
Plus, water used in the clothing manufacturing process doesn’t always come out clean. Approximately 20% of all industrial water pollution comes from treating and dying textiles. This leaves dyes and chemical toxins in the water that our families drink.
Outside of washing clothing, resale businesses like Kid to Kid don’t use water to produce and sell clothing. We have the capability to reduce water usage by millions of gallons per year by simply buying used garments instead of new ones.
Preserved resources
The materials our clothes are made of are not infinite. Resources like cotton are not always in large supply—not to mention, they require immense amounts of human labor to produce. The clothing industry uses over half the world’s supply of cotton to produce new clothes. High demand for these resources causes clothing costs to skyrocket.
Unfortunately, the alternatives aren’t much better. Non-cotton clothing is usually made of polyester. According to the World Resources Institute, production of this synthetic material releases greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 185 coal-fired power plants every year.
It’s a lose-lose situation either way for new clothing! By reusing clothing that’s already made, Kid to Kid reduces the demand for clothes made from finite resources like cotton or materials with high carbon footprints.
Lower air pollution
It takes an immense amount of energy to manufacture and ship new clothing. This energy consumption takes a toll on our power grids and leads to higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. The unfortunate result is climate change effects and unclean air that can cause respiratory problems.
Transporting clothing alone is a huge problem. Most of the clothing sold in the United States is produced overseas. To get these items into the hands of consumers, brands need to ship them to the U.S., store them and transport truckloads all over the nation. A batch of jeans might create up to 80 miles worth of gas emissions to get from the factory to a store.
Kid to Kid’s hyper-local business model sources clothing from the immediate community. We aren’t shipping clothes to customers across the country. Our neighbors bring in garments to sell and then purchase right from us. This means we’re not contributing to greenhouse gas emissions from clothing manufacturing or freight transportation.
Celebrate Earth Day with Kid to Kid
This Earth Day, invest in our planet by investing in Kid to Kid! Our children’s resale clothing franchise is a perfect fit for entrepreneurs interested in running a sustainable, community-focused business in a growing industry. Request franchise information now to get started!
