30 Times People Couldn’t Believe Their Luck In Thrift Stores, Flea Markets, And Garage Sales (New Pics)

"Getting your quirky items through secondhand shopping is a much more sustainable and harmless pastime than shopping new on the internet for a whole host of reasons," Alden Wicker, a sustainable lifestyle blogger and fashion expert, told Bored Panda.

"You're keeping something out of the landfill, you're reducing the climate impact that comes from producing and shipping products, and if you're shopping locally, you're circulating your dollars in your local economy instead of supporting a far-away factory that is potentially a sweatshop," she pointed out.

"I think secondhand is great! The problem is that it takes a little more work and creativity, and people increasingly don't want to leave their computers and do the digging and face-to-face interaction it requires.”

We’ve previously written extensively about the benefits of secondhand shopping. You save cash. You help Planet Earth because you’re reducing the number of new goods that need to be manufactured and transported across the world. You strengthen the ties between yourself and other community members. All of that seems obvious enough. But!

And there is a big “but!” As obvious as it might seem, the benefits of living with ecological responsibility on our minds may not have the huge impact that we crave. At least, according to Wicker's interpretations of the flaws in our conscious consumerism strategies. (Note that this isn’t meant to discourage you, our ecologically conscious Pandas; this is just to widen your perspectives by asking the tough questions.)

Wicker writes on Quartz that “small steps taken by thoughtful consumers—to recycle, to eat locally, to buy a blouse made of organic cotton instead of polyester—will not change the world.

“Making a series of small, ethical purchasing decisions while ignoring the structural incentives for companies’ unsustainable business models won’t change the world as quickly as we want,” Wicker points out. “It just makes us feel better about ourselves.”

“We pat ourselves on the back for making decisions that hush our social guilt instead of placing that same effort in actions that enact real environmental change. On its face, conscious consumerism is a morally righteous, bold movement,” Wicker continues.

“But it’s actually taking away our power as citizens. It drains our bank accounts and our political will, diverts our attention away from the true powerbrokers, and focuses our energy instead on petty corporate scandals and fights over the moral superiority of vegans,” she writes.

“So if you really care about the environment, climb on out of your upcycled wooden chair and get yourself to a town hall meeting. If there’s one silver lining to the environmental crisis facing us, it’s that we now understand exactly the kind of work we need to do to save the planet—and it doesn’t involve a credit card.”

Which makes our battle to save the environment even harder than it first appeared. But no worries, buying things secondhand can certainly be a part of the solution (even if it’s not the entire solution).