Book notes: Secondhand

By Adam Minter.

My mom mentioned enjoying this book, so I checked it out from the library. Three other family members read it as well.

Takeaway: Buy fewer, nicer, things. Buy secondhand if you can. Use them as long as possible.

The author was inspired to find out what happens when stuff goes to secondhand shops. From the US he estimates 50% of the stuff ends up useful again in some other form. We don’t really want to sift through old stuff but still the industry is very efficient. “It’s just stuff, and stuff isn’t forever” (p272).

“It’s a long-brewing crises of quality” (p189). Stuff isn’t made as well now. Folks working in secondhand industry world wide have noticed it. Many customers prefer low-priced new stuff over moderately-priced but nice used stuff. E.g. fast-fashion. 60 years ago stuff was made to last and we repaired broken things (e.g. patch clothes, glue together broken plates).

Globally, the average number of times a garment is worn is down from ~200 to ~160 (36%) from 2000 - 2015 (p57, quoted from A New Textiles Economy). Though in wealthier countries, the average is closer to 7-10.

30% of textiles in US for recycling become wiping rags. Billions of them. (p158)

Don’t be too quick to blame China for cheaply made stuff. Blame the consumer. Fast-fashion was a trend before China came along. China was just really good at manufacturing stuff. Hate the game not the player.

Used child car seats are safe! Maybe not as safe as newer car seats but a lot safer than no car seat. He does a great rant on this (p199).

Lifespan labelling (p214). Consumers will spend more money to get appliances that last longer.

The best deal is a rich person’s broken thing (p241).

A great rant about not sending useful secondhand stuff to Africa because US/Europe think of it as e-waste (p272).

Deeper dives:

• https://www.ifixit.com/ (p231). Will keep an eye on this for device fixes in the future. Good blog content advocating for repairability in design.
• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/style/clothes-label-sustainability.html. Looking for clothing metrics on durability, but not really seeing any. Basically I want to know “How many times can I wear/wash this according to the care label and it looks mostly new?”. I looked at the latest clothes on Patagonia, not seeing this kind of metric. The most important thing I learned here is to read the care label carefully!