Thrift shops can sometimes be the best way to get the things we need.
A Redditor posted a picture of a KitchenAid blender along with the title: "Paid $15 for a $300 blender from Goodwill!"
"The base works perfectly but the jar was missing a seal I thought... Turns out it's still under full warranty and I'm getting a $150 blender jar free of charge right from KitchenAid!"
The image of the blender appeared on the popular Reddit community r/ThriftStoreHauls, which has more than 2.6 million members.
Aside from saving money, there are many benefits to buying secondhand items. American households produce nearly 300 million tons of trash per year, much of which comes from discarded electrical items, like the blender in the Reddit post, which also contains plastic.
In the United States, about 85% of plastics end up in landfills, while only about 5% is recycled. Either way, recycling requires energy and creates harmful air pollution, which warms the planet.
Items like blenders may also be produced with metallic components that can cause extensive amounts of pollution when discarded, since metals have toxic properties that are extremely harmful to the planet.
Buying items at thrift shops can definitely save you money. If the value of the blender was $300 and the Redditor got it for $15, that's a 95% discount!
But, as mentioned above, there is more to it than just the savings. By purchasing secondhand items, we are prolonging their use and slowing the process of filling landfills with plastic and metal and polluting the planet.
Comments on the topic were varied. One Reddit user asked: "Why would anyone need to blend $300?"
Another jokingly responded: "Or did someone pay $300 for a $15 blender, and donated it to Goodwill?" The same commenter finished with "Nice score! Congrats!"
The buyer of the blender definitely scored, and so did the environment.
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