Brides & bridesmaids unite to save the Earth (and their wallets!) Yep, it’s possible. Tracy DiNunzio is the owner of Recycled Media and founder of the eco-resale websites RecycledBride.com, RecycledTyke.com, and RecycledStyle.com. Her sites help users to maximize their budgets and minimize their consumer waste. Tracy writes about how to create a smarter, greener lifestyle on your wedding day and every day. Here she shares her story, and great ways to save cash and Mama Earth a hassle on your big day.
You recycle your cans and bottles, but many women are surprised to find out that they can recycle their wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses too! If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably spent some serious cash on bridal or bridesmaids’ stuff this wedding season. And as a green girl, dontcha just hate the waste of only wearing something once? Me too! That’s why I started RecycledBride.com, a green wedding marketplace where women buy and sell designer gently used wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses, decorations, and anything else wedding-related.
Recycled Bride is free, and over 100,000 brides and bridesmaids shop and sell on the site every month. Buyers save up to 90% on designer dresses from Vera, Monique, and more. Sellers recoup wedding expenses while eliminating closet clutter. And we donate 15% of advertising revenue to Global Green USA. It’s a win-win-win for everyone!
Hesitant about buying or selling a gently used dress? Here’s why you should get over it:
1. Most wedding gowns begin their lives as huge rolls of raw, tan-colored fabric that’s bleached white using an ugly, energy-intensive process that consumes gallons of water and uses harmful industrial chemical compounds that affect factory workers and the environment. Your dress might be pretty, but that sure isn’t!
2. The majority of wedding dresses are made in China or South America, then shipped to Europe for “finishing”, then transported to America. Hello, carbon emissions!
3. According the E.P.A., 44% of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions come from non-food consumer products. So while many of us earn our eco-cred by driving fuel-efficient cars, conserving energy and water, and recycling our food packaging, almost half of our carbon footprint comes from all the stuffwe buy. This means that the manufacture, packaging and transport of products like clothing, electronics and yes, wedding dresses, bridal accessories, decorations and gifts, accounts for a giant chunk of our environmental impact.
4. There are approximately 2.4 million weddings every year in the U.S. What if just half of those brides decided to resell their dresses, and those dresses reduced the demand for newly manufactured frocks? What kind of impact would 1.2 million less wedding dresses a year have on our collective carbon footprint?
5. The average cost of a wedding dress is over $1,000, with many designer gowns priced at over $5,000! Most brides who sell a designer-name wedding dress right after their wedding (so that the style is recent and still on the designer’s site) are able to recoup 50% to 90% of the cost of the dress. That can pay for a cool eco-honeymoon, or a new wardrobe from your favorite green designers!
Convinced? Come on over and visit RecycledBride.com, and join us in saving the Earth one wedding at a time.
Website: recycledbride.com,recycledtyke.com Twitter: @recycledbride @recycledtyke