Thrifting is gentler on the environment by reducing pollution and waste. The average American throws away 81 pounds of clothes PER YEAR. That adds up to around 26 BILLION pounds of clothing going right to landfills. Thrifting is recycling. Point blank. By choosing preloved items over newly produced pieces, you're shrinking your carbon footprint. You're limiting the amount of natural resources it takes to create new fabric, make the clothing, and ship it hundreds or thousands of miles to the store. Giving a used item new life rescues it from those 26 billion pounds going to the landfill by keeping it in circulation. And when you're done with it, you can donate it again for someone else to find and love. It's a gift that keeps giving. 

In addition to being nice to the planet, thrifting is nice to people. Buying secondhand reduces both new items being produced AND the need for someone to produce them. Mass production often comes at the cost of human rights. Women, children, and impoverished people are usually at the highest risk for worker rights violations--low wages, long hours, poor working conditions, etc. So while you can certainly seek ethically-sources items, nothing is more ethical than recycled goods. 

Many thrift shops serve some charitable cause, whether it be job training and placement, funding a mission of some kind, or simply providing impoverished communities an affordable shopping option. Not to mention giving your money to local shops puts it right back into your local community. It's much easier to track where your clothes and goods have traveled. Instead of having been shipped halfway across the world, thrifted items are locally sourced.