The Vintage Trend & How It Can Affect The Environment

There are three types of vintage salesmen/artists/stores you might be familiar with and their pros and cons where the environment is concerned:

1. Those who sell "vintage inspired" goods, meaning that their items look 20 years old or older, but their products are made from new or recent materials. They don't upcycle vintage items into new products or resell truly authentic vintage goods.  The result?  While their items may look nice and inspire nostalgia in potential customers, they are not saving and/or reusing anything from a landfill (and not all clothing, accessories and jewelry is made from materials that are biodegradable).
2. Those who resell authentic vintage goods.  These guys do a great job in extending the life of "old things" and resell pieces considering current fashion trends.
3. Those, like me, upcycle vintage items into more valuable pieces.  We'll buy items such as a monocle and use a page from a 1920s hymnal and transform those two items into one pendant with a pressed flower tossed in. We buy "old things" locally (preferably), online or have friends and family donate their unwanted pieces to us.  After looking at what we have, we then decide what goes together well and go from there.  However; unlike resellers, sometimes we have to buy new parts to make a whole piece.  For example, I may have 2 vintage items to upcycle into a pendant, but I will always need lacquer to put them together.

My point?  Try to buy from as many resellers and upcyclers as possible to help reduce the need for land fills.  

Thank You!  :)