20% of shoppers are environmentally motivated when purchasing second hand

Vinted, the marketplace for second-hand fashion, has released the results of its first Climate Change Impact Report. The comprehensive report provided an analysis of the climate impact of shopping second-hand fashion on Vinted instead of purchasing new.

Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the results show that shopping for second-hand fashion on Vinted instead of buying new on average avoided 1.8kg CO2e per item. As a result, carbon emissions avoided by the marketplace in 2021 were 453 kilotonnes CO2e, the equivalent emissions to flying between London and Los Angeles and back 275,000 times.

Vaayu, the developers behind the report, used an LCA approach to analyse half a billion transactions, alongside insights on shopping behaviours from a sample of 350,000 Vinted members. This forms the largest-ever primary dataset on second-hand online shopping at scale.

The report assessed:

• The cradle-to-consumer carbon emissions of products sold on Vinted
• How often Vinted members avoided the purchase of a new product when buying second-hand
• The carbon emissions generated by deliveries, packaging and Vinted operations.

The study revealed that whilst almost half of buyers (47%) shop second hand due to affordability, 20% said they are motivated by environmental and social concerns, highlighting that members increasingly value the impact of a purchase.

When asked if they would still choose to buy second-hand items even if the item was available new for the same price, 20% of buyers said yes.

Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Vinted, commented: "Fashion is responsible for significant damage to the environment, so our mission is grounded in the conviction that resale is one of the solutions to tackle this harm.

"With this extensive analysis, we are happy to be able to evidence that buying second-hand items on Vinted is a better choice for the climate than buying new. And we will use learnings from this analysis to ultimately help Vinted and our members change fashion consumption habits and continue reducing the negative impact of fashion on the climate into the future."