This is how much water we saved at Zadaa in 2021 thanks to secondhand!

Have you ever been wondering how big the impact of secondhand platforms is? Secondhand is part of the solution to create a more sustainable future of fashion in many ways but today we want to focus on water! We took a dive into our secondhand app data and we are now ready to share our numbers with you. Because yes, by selling and buying secondhand garments you have a bigger impact than you think!

Do you know the difference between buying a new shirt or a pre-loved one? Well, it takes as much as 2,720 liters of water to produce only one new cotton t-shirt. That’s approximately as much water as a single person would drink over three years according to an Institute of Water report. If one piece of clothing can make that big of an impact, imagine the amount of water we saved all together in 2021!

As a community of fashion lovers, we are fighting against wasting water. That’s something that we at the Zadaa offices think about daily and what drives us in our jobs. We sometimes forget how wasting water increases the value of other commodities, and with water being scarcer, it becomes harder to produce certain commodities that need it. As a consequence, certain commodities will become scarce or priced at higher rates and we don’t want that to happen.

Last year, just by shopping in our clothes department instead of buying new clothes, you saved together 1.4 billion liters of water. Yes, just by shopping secondhand fashion. But there is more. 215 million liters of water were saved through the accessories department and 109 million through the shoe department. In total, you guys have contributed to 1.7 billion liters of water we saved on Zadaa in 2021!

We want to thank you for being part of our amazing community of changemakers and supporting circularity in the fashion industry by buying secondhand instead!