A lucky thrift store shopper discovered the "ludicrously expensive" hurricane lamp they had been seeking at a very low price.
They wrote about their experience on Reddit after originally seeing it on Facebook, saying, "I had been eyeing a beautiful but ludicrously expensive hurricane lamp on FB marketplace all week. Lo and behold, I found a nearly identical one at Goodwill for $6.99!"
The Redditor posted about the bargain on the highly popular Reddit community r/ThriftStoreHauls, which has 2.6 million members.
Thrifting can be a great option for purchasing goods for numerous reasons. First of all, it will usually save you money when compared to buying brand-new items. In fact, one report claims thrifting can save shoppers $1,700 a year on average.
But there's a lot more to the story.
The production of goods requires energy to turn raw materials into things like glass and metal, like the Redditor's hurricane lamp.
This produces harmful planet-warming pollutants that also contaminate the air we breathe. Each year, around seven million people die from respiratory diseases and other complications caused by air pollution.
When discarded, metals like the kind at the base of the lamp also cause extensive amounts of pollution since they have toxic properties that are extremely harmful to the planet.
Throwing out our appliances, especially when they are still operable, is extremely wasteful and can cause massive environmental problems.
Most of these discarded items end up in landfills and become nothing more than solid waste that produces gas methane, which warms the planet even more than carbon.
The U.S. alone produces around 300 million tons of solid waste every single year, much of which ends up shipped across the globe and getting burned, releasing more toxic gases into the air.
When we buy secondhand items instead of brand new ones, we are preventing the needless production of new items while keeping used items from going into a landfill and polluting the planet.
Redditors had plenty of things to say.
One Redditor commented, "That's gorgeous!"
"I saw one at goodwill last week for $25. I just got one today at a yard sale for $2!" one wrote.
Another person asked, "How much was the one on fb marketplace?" to which the original poster answered, "$85."
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