In the days leading up to the start of school, it’s a tradition for students and their parents all around the world to head to the stores and return with bags of school supplies and new clothes. While it can be helpful to have a fresh start to the year, I have found that back-to-school shopping is only useful if you’re actually missing key supplies.
There are some school supplies that are necessary to replace every year, like notebooks or pens that have run out of ink. On the other hand, there’s no reason to get a new fancy binder if you have a perfectly functional one from last year.
Also, as a part of back-to-school shopping, there’s been a recent trend of “back-to-school clothing hauls” where students buy new items worth hundreds or thousands and share the images on social media.
The trend of “hauls” has popped up on social media in recent years, and online creators share what they buy to their followers, but can anyone possibly wear that much clothing? I can’t help but think about what happens to someone’s old clothes if they buy a whole new closet every year. Even if they keep the clothes from the previous year, the person now has double the amount of clothing.
Clothes made of synthetic materials like polyester and nylon contain microplastics, which are harmful not only to not only human health, but also for the environment and the wildlife that live there. When unused clothes are tossed out to make room for new clothes, the microplastics inside contribute to greenhouse gas emissions as they take hundreds of years to break down, while also seeping into groundwater and soil. All of this means making clothes last is one of the greenest things anyone can do.
It’s fun to buy clothes for a new school year, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but it is excessive to come out of a mall with seven full shopping bags.
One way to still go back-to-school shopping without going overboard is thrifting. It’s a good way of buying clothes and is both cheaper and much better for the environment.
Ultimately, instead of repeatedly buying a whole new set of school materials and clothes to use and wear, we should focus on buying in moderation, prioritizing the quality of what we buy and making it last.
