Danish influencer creates free second-hand project to reduce textile waste in Copenhagen

This spring influencer Embla Reiff started her own second-hand project, where she collects people’s old clothing and gives it away for free in self-orchestrated markets. 

“I pick up the stuff from people's houses which they don't have the time to get into the thrift store or to the recycling station. Then I get someone else to make some use of it (...) The point of it is to get more stuff used instead of being burned or thrown out." 

The idea came to Reiff after working at both a recycling station and a second-hand store in Copenhagen, where she became aware of how much donated clothing never reached new owners. 

“[In the past] when I used to drop off stuff at a thrift shop, I would think to myself, now it's going to get used, and then I found out that most of it doesn't get sold and most of it doesn't get used,” she explains. 

Reiff believes many second-hand stores increasingly focus on selling fewer items at higher prices, whether for charity purposes or simply to make money, instead of maximizing the amount of clothing that gets reused. 

“The strategy has moved into only selling the things that you can get a lot of money for,” she says. 

Her concerns are echoed by a 2024 report from Copenhagen’s municipality, which estimates that around 60% of textiles could have been recycled instead of being burned. 

Frequent second-hand shopper Lene Dehn also notices rising prices: “The prices have gone up a lot recently,” Larsen says. “If you can get a blouse new at 75 kroner, and you can get a slightly worn blouse for 100 at Red Cross, what do you choose?” 

For Reiff, the answer has been to create a different path for unwanted clothes, where she gives them away for free to keep them in use before they become textile waste.