Carbon impact: online resale platforms emit more than solidarity stores

A bright yellow tank top or a floral skirt for 5 euros? In the aisles of second-hand stores like the Oxfam Dressing in Paris, it is possible to find clothing that has already been worn at a low price. But as for independent thrift stores, like Kilo Shop which will close its branch in Rennes, solidarity circuits are suffering from competition from digital platforms, like Vinted.

In a report published on September 10, Oxfam France shows that buying on online resale platforms emits up to 5 times more CO2 equivalent than in solidarity stores. To reach this conclusion, the RDC Environnement firm compared the life cycle of a 5 kg package of clothing through three second-hand models. These take into account the stages of sorting until resale in social and solidarity economy (ESS) stores, commercial second-hand stores and online resale platforms.

In the first case, the carbon footprint is 0.6 kg of CO2, 2.9 kg in the second and 3.1 kg for the last. Contacted, the Lithuanian company Vinted indicates that it does not consider its platform to be “a substitute for charitable associations, but as a complementary lever”, by also allowing associations to sell on Vinted Pro.

Transport, the main source of CO2 emissions

It is first of all because of the transport and the sorting chain put in place that the sale of second-hand clothing emits more CO2 in certain models. “Online platforms need a lot of logistics with sending packages, transport, relays, or possible returns,” indicates Eloïse Bazin, responsible for the report at Oxfam. This generates traffic and more CO2 emitted. » For its part, Vinted explains that it wants to reduce its transport-related emissions by 52% by 2030 and specifies that “even taking into account transport, buying second-hand on the platform avoids on average 2.39 kg of CO2 equivalent per item compared to a new purchase”.

In France, Oxfam has eight solidarity shops, which locally take care of the different stages of sorting, collection and resale. For clothing sold in commercial second-hand stores, sorting can also be outsourced and take place in a third country. Part of the textiles is thus sent to European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, or countries with lower wages, such as Tunisia, Turkey, Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates.

“We are in the same logic as fast fashion,” continues Eloïse Bazin. We prefer to produce in Asia than in France, because it costs less. » In France, according to the report from the eco-organization Refashion, around 260,000 tonnes of clothing, shoes or home textiles were collected in 2022. But the country was only able to sort 188,000 tonnes, out of a volume of 827,000 tonnes placed on the market.

Fast fashion, “an intrinsic decline in quality”

“We see with the rise of online platforms or lucrative physical stores that the cream tends to go to these networks,” explains Julie Lannoy, manager of Oxfam France stores and spokesperson for responsible and supportive fashion. However, the cream of the crop are products that can be resold at a price that allows solidarity reuse structures to function. » At the same time, ultra-fast fashion has increased donations of lower quality.

Observations that Emmaüs also shares. “In the reality of the structures, it is very palpable, we have an intrinsic drop in quality, with clothes which easily deform, discolor, whose seams do not hold,” explains Tarek Daher, general delegate of Emmaüs France. It cannot be resold as is. » According to him, based on figures from the eco-organization Refashion, Emmaüs reached a rate of 64% reuse and reuse in 2014. In 2024, it fell to 56%.

For Oxfam, online platforms also divert second-hand goods from the objectives of the social and solidarity economy, such as creating links and avoiding overconsumption of clothing. “Today, purchasing on these platforms is not seen as a substitute for new, but to buy in addition to new,” regrets Eloïse Bazin. As we are in a profit-making logic, the objective is not to avoid waste, to raise awareness, but to sell as much as possible with marketing techniques, such as notifications sent to encourage purchases. In this same logic, the NGO also sees the appearance of what it calls “fast second hand”, with the creation of second hand corners in stores which also offer vouchers in exchange.

An economic model under threat

In the Emmaüs movement, it is its main mission which seems threatened, since it is the leading collector of textiles in France, with around 150,000 tonnes. “The heart of our economic model is to have a profitable textile reuse activity that brings people in. If you lose what is most expected by your customers, textiles, it disrupts the economics of your model, underlines Tarek Daher. And behind us, we finance a social model of accommodation, welcome, solidarity. »

Of the 300 structures of the movement, 200 work mainly on reuse, and therefore, textiles. A complex economic equation when six out of ten second-hand items of clothing today pass through lucrative channels, according to the report. To deal with this, the associations are calling for a 30% reduction in the textile volumes placed on the market by 2035 and to sustainably finance solidarity reuse.