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Newbie campers, budget-conscious backpackers, and serious environmentalists alike will appreciate being able to find used gear for camping, hiking, climbing, snowshoeing, and other outdoor pursuits. Whatever your pleasure, this option will help you save green while reducing your energy, water, and chemical consumption.

How to buy used outdoor gear

1. Get the basics: Determine what gear you’ll actually need—you don’t want to waste your money on items that are unnecessary. For instance, if you’re camping, you’ll need sleeping bags and a tent, bug spray, a flashlight or lantern, and perhaps a radio, as well as food and a stove of some kind. You may not, however, require your iPod or a luxury inflatable mattress.
2. Hard-working options: Look for gear that’s well-made and durable so it will continue to last a long time and can be reused on future adventures.
3. Gear-up online: Check out used gear options on a swap and trade website.
4. Low-tech thriftiness: Take a trip to secondhand, charity, or consignment shops, as well as auctions, flea markets, garage, yard, and estate sales.

Find it! Gear swap websites

The used outdoor gear market is growing steadily, resulting in shopping choices galore! You’re sure to find what you’re looking for by using one of these secondhand portals.

Before you buy

Used gear sellers may be putting their wares up for auction for a good reason—the item may be broken or perhaps inconvenient to use. To ensure you’re getting good quality products, do a little research by checking out online reviews. Trailspace.com and BackpackGearTest are two such sites. Once you’ve determined that you’ve got a winner, be sure to ask the seller whether the gear as been damaged in any way before laying down your cash. One way to gauge an item’s condition is to ask the seller how much it was used. Some would-be campers buy a bunch of new gear, only to discover it’s not for them, so turn to selling their stuff after only one or two uses, which means good deals for you.

Buying used camping gear helps you go green because…

• Secondhand items don’t require new resources to be taken from the earth. Choosing these options keeps usable materials from landfills.
• Choosing used gear ensures that water and energy use is cut, and that no new chemicals are added to crops and finished products.

Americans buy over $5 billion worth of outdoor gear annually. All of these products require energy, water, chemicals, and land to produce, much of which damages the earth.[1][2] In 2006, over 251 million tons of garbage were produced in the US.[3] Each American resident generates approximately 4.6 pounds of garbage every day;[4] more solid waste than the residents of any other country. Canadians generate the next largest amount of waste, about 3.75 pounds each per day, whereas Germany and Sweden produce less than 2 pounds per day per person, the least of all the industrialized nations.[5] Reusing items is more sustainable than recycling them or otherwise disposing of them, since the items do not require energy or other resources to collect, transport, sort, and either process into their constituent recyclable components, incinerate, or sequester in a landfill.

Eco-impacts of new products

Though natural fibers are biodegradable and renewable, their production and manufacture are fraught with environmental problems. Cotton farming uses only about 3 percent of the farmland around the world, but consumes 25 percent of all chemical pesticides and fertilizers.[6] Conventional wool production also involves the use of pesticides on pastures and chemicals in the feed.[7] And insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of pesticide application, and ever increasing amounts are needed to be effective.[8]

Many outdoor gear manufacturers add chemical treatments such as GORE-TEX and Teflon to fabrics in order to help repel insects, water, and odors. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), fabrics treated with such chemicals can break down in the environment or in the human body. [9][10] Scientific studies have identified 15 PFCs in human blood, and one 2001 industry study of six PFCs in human blood identified four PFCs at higher levels in children than in adults.[10]

Polyvinyl chloride PVC—a soft plastic used commonly in consumer products—poses severe environmental risks throughout its lifecycle.[11] The manufacture of PVC creates toxic pollution, threatening the health of both factory workers and the communities surrounding factory sites. When disposed of, lead, phthalates—which are industrial compounds used to make plastics soft[12]—and other toxic additives can leach into the ground and drinking water supplies from landfills. Incineration of PVC products produces dioxins and furans, which are among the most toxic environmental contaminants and are known carcinogens.[13] Recycling is not an option with PVC plastic: one PVC item can contaminate a batch of 100,000 recyclable bottles.[13]

Glossary

• phthalates: A group of chemicals used as plasticisers in PVC plastics that are known to be testicular toxins and can disrupt hormones.[14]

External links

• Travel Gear Blog
• Learner.org - Garbage
• MSNBC.com - Shop Green for Earth Day
• The Rotten Truth About Garbage