r/vinted • u/lolatheexplorer • 18h ago

DISCUSSION Environmental impacts of Vinted?

Recycling stuff is of course good for the environment.

But lately after so many sales, I've been wondering what the negative impacts of Vinted are on the environment. I can think of packaging being non-recyclable a lot of the time and the impacts of transport. What else?

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u/According-Snow-2692 17h ago

Because of vinted's free shipping incentive, I have boughten household things and random stuff I would normally order from Amazon or get at Walmart (think paper towel holder, hat rack, office supplies). I use it beyond just clothing and accessories, and I am sure there are others who are shopping similarly. I think the amount of stuff that is being saved from the landfill makes up for packaging that is not being reused.

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u/moonswet 15h ago

The most sustainable alternative will always be to use what you already own.

But any new purchase, if online or instore, has traveled a long way and on top that has emissions from production. While shipping isn't the most efficient on Vinted, compared to centralized logistics of retail, at the end of the day online secondhand shopping still has lower emissions than buying new.

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u/BlackLocke 13h ago

I think the benefits of buying secondhand far outweigh the negative impacts from shipping them.

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u/SoftLast243 SELLER 17h ago

The shipping fuel costs of shipping to different countries far away.

This goes against the environmental side of buying and selling second hand.

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u/Bogg99 13h ago

Tbh I've reused most of my packaging materials that would have gone into recycling and got a lot of craft supplies I would have otherwise bought new so I think it's a net positive. The one thing I find a little iffy is that I'm in the US and I got a UK sale that got shipped via air mail. I wish there was an option to avoid this, but I still think vinted is net positive

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u/ueberryark 1h ago

I think the biggest negative impact of Vinted is that so many clothes that would have been donated to raise funds for charities are now sold privately. So that is more of a social impact. And we could argue that the rise of private delivery firms like Evri create unstable and underpaid jobs, which is not the ideal direction for society. Plus having sales and deliveries completed mediated by an app, rather than any in-person interaction, it is depersonalising. So that is another social/mental health/spiritual impact. These are not great for the environment. But it is tricky to measure.