Second-hand Market Mania

Originally published in the Turn The Page Issue 60, April 2017

Five years ago, a hype came into this world: ‘thrift shopping’. The man who seemed to be responsible for this was the rapper Macklemore. With his Grammy Award winning song ‘Thrift Shop’, he made second-hand shopping cool again. ‘Vintage’ became a popular subject in the world of fashion and design. The big hype created by Macklemore has had its glory days. However, few seem to be aware of the huge impact of the second-hand market on our daily lives. That is why it seemed like a fair moment to let people realise the cause of this popularity and what influence it has on the economy, environment and our design strategies.

Who or when the second-hand market exactly started, is still unknown. What we do know, is that it is a European concept. The first known places where used goods were sold, were the big outdoor bazaars in France, which have been around for hundreds of years. According to an organisation that runs one of these places today, an unknown bargain hunter around 1880 was the first to give a name to these second-hand markets. He looked upon all the old rags and worn-out furniture and came up with ‘Le marché aux puces’, literally translated: ‘The market of fleas’. This is because the rumour went, that the old items were filled with bugs. Apparently, people did not mind the little bloodsuckers and saw the potential of buying and selling used goods. Nowadays, the worldwide second-hand market is worth over 650 billion American dollars, with online marketplace Ebay as its showpiece. When you are more old-school, you can always sell your useless stuff at our famous Kingsday.

Cause of popularity

The average person becomes really excited when he can save or earn some money. That is exactly what the second-hand market does. Research shows that people only use 60% of all the products in their homes. That means that a lot of goods that are in fine condition, can easily be sold and make someone else happy. This virtuous circle of people being excited to buy and sell, has the second-hand market running better than ever. The downside is that you do not have the certainty that your purchase fulfills your expectations. That is why buying brand-new is still more popular.

There is a second psychological part that causes the popularity of the second-hand market. People from all ages tend to like everything they can remember from the past. This phenomenon is called ‘the reminiscence bump’. From an age of 18 until 27, your memory works best and captures most of your positive experiences. All the interests and skills you create in that time, carve you into the person you are today. When finding something that reminds you of the past, you immediately reflect on the experiences that shaped you as a human being. That is why strolling around the second-hand marketplace and searching for old stuff gives us a pleasant, nostalgic feeling. The quote “just like old times” is not popular for nothing.

Economic impact

When looking into the newspapers, we read about about all kinds of economies making bigger and bigger revenues every year. Hardly do we read about the impact of the second-hand market on our economy, which is strange because it is much bigger than we think. On the other hand, it seems understandable because it is hard to keep track on every transaction done in this market. The biggest part of second-hand products is sold by individuals, which makes it hard to keep track of a database with the traded items, like big retail shops have. Yet, with a share of 650 billion US dollars, it is one of the biggest and fastest growing trade markets in the world. Especially in the automotive and electronics trade, companies see their opportunity to earn their living- and that has its reasons. For every 100 brand-new cars, 120 second-hand cars are sold and this number is growing. That is not the only market growing rapidly. With the rising quality of smartphones, this second-hand market is growing 4–5% faster than the new smartphone business.

With the introduction of refurbishing companies, the position of the second-hand economy is stabilising more and more. Back in the days, it was tricky to buy a second-hand mobile phone or washing machine. With some bad luck, it looked great on the outside but was full of electronic defects on the inside. It had no warranty, so it was a worthless spend of money. Nowadays, licensed businesses buy up large quantities of products that cannot be sold because of small defects. They check them, fix them and deliver a perfectly working device with warranty to the customer. This does not only make people happy, but our economy as well. All the companies operating in the second-hand market (think of car sales or thrift stores) create millions of jobs worldwide… And this number gets bigger. They also make sure the money is spent on goods that stay in our country. Fewer products are imported, so less money will leave our country, which makes our own economy even stronger.

Environmental impact

Most people buy and sell second-hand stuff because of the financial aspect, but an even more important and interesting side of the story is completely forgotten. Without knowing, the second-hand market makes the biggest recycle mechanism on earth. Like already told, an average of 40% of all products in a household are not used, even though they are mostly in a perfect state. By not throwing it away but selling it, you give a completely new life to a product that used to be useless. That is not only good for the environment and your wallet, but it also creates a different system of supply and demand.

It is simple: if people buy more clothing from thrift shops, they automatically need less brand new clothes from a big store like H&M. The demand in the clothing industry goes down, which results in the fact that they will manufacture less. Recycling and reuse of products and materials have significant potential to increase material efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. This phenomenon is called ‘dematerialisation’ of the economy. That is exactly what we need in our extremely materialistic lifestyle.

Of course, clothing is just a simple example. Cars or cellphones have a much bigger impact on the environment. Studies show that 70% of all cell phones could be reused, but only 14–17% actually gets a second life. This results in almost 140 million phones being trashed yearly. Apart from all the man hours and perfectly fine technology put into the device, precious metals are used in the processor. This makes every phone a small portable safe filled with gold and silver.

From every one million cell phones you could yield 50 pounds of palladium, 70 pounds of gold and 750 pounds of silver. This equals a sum of a sloppy 2.5 million dollars that becomes waste.

It is no surprise that phones are extremely expensive these days. Fortunately, some companies see a potential in these valuable mobile phones. They buy large amounts of phones with defects and start refurbishing them. A new life is given. Nowadays, at almost every mobile provider, you can choose a cheaper, refurbished iPhone instead of a new one and still have a two-year guarantee.

How to design for the second-hand market

In our discipline, sustainability is becoming one of the most important features in a design process. Most products we use nowadays have a relatively large CO2 footprint and this needs a drastic change. Ironically, most products are also designed to have a certain lifecycle and to break at some point. Of course, this is economically smart to keep the consuming flow going and to make more money, but it is also outdated. As a designer, we can help to make this lifecycle longer and give a product a second life. A perfect example is the Fairphone (See our article about the Fairphone). This phone is completely cradle-to-cradle and gives people the opportunity to fix their own phone when it is necessary. That is the problem with most e-waste; it is hardly possible to fix without spending a lot of money on it. When it comes to sustainability, how a product ends its life is often as important as how it lives. We need to stop thinking only about the assembly part, but also think about the disassembly.

Designing for disassembly involves some straightforward tactics. For example:

• The fewer parts you use, the fewer parts there are to take apart.
• As with parts, the fewer fasteners you use, the better.
• Common and similar fasteners that require only a few standard tools will help to simplify and speed up disassembly.
• Screws are faster to unfasten than nuts and bolts.
• Glues should be avoided.
• Building disassembly instructions into the product will help users understand how to take it apart.

‘Design for disassembly’ will lead to a longer lifecycle, but no matter how clever we are, the product will die one day. That is where a new responsibility will come in. Every material that cannot be broken down by our natural system, must be given back to our industrial system. Designers can use different techniques to give these materials a new life.

Designing for recycling involves some tactics:

• Choose materials that are recycled easily.
• Minimize the number of materials used. When possible, use one.
• Avoid paints and adhesives. Use inherent color.
• Avoid combinations of materials that are hard to separate.
• Make hazardous or toxic materials quick and easy to remove.
• Create easy take-back programmes to ensure proper disposal of complicated products.

Actually, the second-hand market is a very interesting and exciting economy. It earns money and gives us the opportunity to find that car or the expensive shoes you have been looking for half the price. The other, maybe even more important aspect seems a little underexposed to most people. In a time where we have to be careful with the scarce materials in our world, we do the complete opposite. Where most products could get a second life, they are thrown away or stay unused in our basement. Producing less would be the perfect way to solve this problem, but with a growing population and growing consumerism, this basically seems impossible. A much more achievable solution is recycling and since the second-hand market is one of the easiest ways to do this, we have to take advantage while we still can. The only problem: most of our products are not designed for a second life. We as future designers can and must change this!