By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

Recycling can go beyond cans, bottles, cardboard and paper. 

Students at The New School in Kennebunk have compiled a “Guide to Buying Used Clothes in Southern Maine.” They say reusing and recycling clothes are the best reasons to buy secondhand – and save money.

Students discovered it was hard to find thrift stores without a concise listing when they researched thrift and consignment stores around southern Maine to help build their fundraising thrift store, Outta the Box on York Street in Kennebunk.  

 “There’s always a base of people out there looking for bargains, but I think there is a new demographic looking for a cheaper option,” said their teacher, Flora Brown. 

Each of the nine stores in York County that agreed to be listed and share the cost of printing have copies of the brochure available for customers. 

Isabell and Laura Pollini, shoppers at Outta the Box, said they picked up the guide at Fresh Start, a consignment store on Main Street in Kennebunk. The Pollinis were on vacation from Florida and looking for clothes warmer than the shorts and T-shirts they packed, Isabell Pollini said. 

“We’re trying to be conscious of our budget,” she said. “Everybody is trying to save. And I guess if you are really wealthy it wouldn’t matter to buy all new things.”

Laura Pollini said it makes more sense to find a bargain rather than to buy new, warm clothing, especially when she has “plenty of sweaters at home.”

“It’s more fun to scavenge around and find treasures, too,” Isabell Pollini said. 

Jade Deshaies, a sophomore at The New School, is working part time at the store during summer. She said the idea behind the store started with the declining economy and the idea of not wasting clothes.

“I don’t think people realize even though it’s second hand it can be really cool clothes,” Deshaies said. “It’s a lot cheaper and more creative.”

While Outta the Box deals with donated clothing and sales benefit the school, she said, some stores on the guide operate by consignment. 

Consignment shops set different guidelines, but the basic concept is that consigners can bring in clothing to be sold in the store. Repeat Boutique owner Debra Napolitano said she decides which items she’ll display in her store for up to 60 days. If the items sells, she said the boutique keeps half of the sale and the consigner receives the other half.  

 In the year and seven months she has been operating, she said she has developed a base of 600 consigners for the Repeat Boutique on Route 1 in Saco. 

“To have that many is good for only being open a year and a half,” Napolitano said. 

She said she encourages people to consign  clothing because it helps business and – with a 50 percent split of each article’s sale price – also benefits the consigner. She currently has about 3,500 items in her store, but said she could use twice that space for all the clothing people bring in. 

The Buxton Treasure Chest operates on donations and consignments, owner June Curtis said. The store, which she said has “a little bit of everything,” opened in February. 

“I felt a need for it,” Curtis said. “I have items that may not have a place at a yard sale, but good for a store. Another man’s trash is someone else’s treasure.”

Curtis said business has been slow getting off the ground, but her customer base has increased through word of mouth. 

“People in the area are happy to have this store. I’ve been getting positive feedback,” she said. 

Goodwill Industries of Northern New England Communications Coordinator Michelle Smith said local stores have seen an increase in shoppers, with nearly 2 million stopping in during the past year.

“Same-store sales, which does not count new stores built in the last year, are up 8 percent over last year’s sales,” Smith said. 

Profits from Goodwill sales benefit the organization’s programs, including job training, assistance with finding work, residential homes for people with disabilities and two brain injury programs in Portland and Lewiston, Smith said.

“I believe that the increase in our sales is due to the economy and more and more people are choosing Goodwill as a shopping destination,” she said. “I also think people are coming into our stores that maybe never had come before.”

In addition to benefiting local people and business and saving money, Smith and Napolitano second the importance of recycling clothes.

Napolitano said she has continued recycling habits she developed while living in New York, where recycling is mandatory. If consigned clothing is not purchased after eight weeks on the rack, her consignees have the option to donate the items. 

“More and more people are donating things,” she said, adding she had a car full of items ready to take to donation sites. 

“A lot of people are so much more aware of being green,” Smith said. “It’s something simple to do to keep waste out of landfills.”

Staff writer Emma Bouthillette can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 237.