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Second hand is the first choice: Charitable or capitalist?

Buy yourself happy! Timeless, sustainable and cool - with selected books, discarded furniture or vintage fashion. Other colors, different cuts, decades-old clothes that are the exact opposite of environmentally harmful fast fashion. The ‘second-favorite’ product does not only run as a moral trend in the ‘re-sale’, because you can shoot second-hand without a guilty conscience, while the fashion industry causes a lot of CO2.

Also, what constitutes the market share in the fashion trade - the trend is increasing. What used to go via old clothes containers to poorer countries of Eastern Europe and the African continent, is now sold to vintage dealers and above all always expensively resold. In second hand culture, used goods even become sought-after luxury goods. Online platforms are as sophisticatedly sorted and organized as upscale boutiques. Is it capitalist or charitable? Old clothes traders are critical of the gentrification of the market. An eco-capitalism is being discussed, which further complicates the global market effects with used goods and harms non-profit organizations, which also calls into question the question of real sustainability.

Among others, we talk to Christian Wegner, founder of the second-hand portal ‘Momox’, Thomas Ahlmann of ‘Fairwertung’ and Viola Wohlgemuth, expert on consumption and textiles at Greenpeace.

Scope:54 minutes

Reference: free of charge for download