People rent clothes for weddings, vacations, or other special times. More people now rent clothes instead of buying new ones.

These services send clothes to people. Then, the items go back for someone else to use.

“I have not bought anything for a big event since 2019,” said Sasha Eck, a person who rents clothes.

She said renting formal clothes was better than paying a month’s rent for a dress she would wear only once. A recent survey from ThredUp says other people have the same problem, and 87% of wedding guests said they bought at least one outfit they wore only once.

Clothes rental services look good for the Earth: One piece of clothing can be worn by many people instead of staying in one closet. But fashion and shipping experts say rental subscriptions are harder, especially when shipping, returns, and how people buy are included.

Kate Fletcher, a teacher at Manchester Metropolitan University, said rental services can sometimes make people think like fast fashion.

"In theory, the things in that garment can be used more because more people wear it. So that is the good idea of it," she said.

But Fletcher said many of those good things for the environment can be hurt by shipping, returns, and cleaning.

Aja Barber said people often do not see the footprint of those things.

"When you think about rental, you do not think about the bag that comes every time you get something from rental. You do not think about the carbon from sending the item to you. And you certainly do not think about the carbon from dry cleaning," said Barber.

Still, both experts said rental services can be good in some situations.

"If you sometimes wear special clothes and you do not want to buy a dress you wear one time, I think it can be very good," said Barber.

Fletcher talked about old rental ways, like suit or gown rentals, where people went to a shop, got fitted there, and later gave back the item. She said those ways often had a very different effect on the environment than new app-based rental services that use shipping many times.

More people buy things online now. This is bad for the environment. "last mile delivery" is the last step of taking a package from a center to a customer’s home. Transportation already makes a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, said Johanna Amaya, assistant professor of supply chain management at Pennsylvania State University.

"More deliveries to our homes, more deliveries to our place, more harm to the environment," said Amaya.

Rental services can also make a problem because the process needs two trips: one to bring the clothing and another to take it back.

Amaya said fast shipping can also make delivery systems less good because companies have less time to put packages together.

"They can wait more to put more orders together and use the delivery vehicles better," said Amaya.

She said that taking items to one place, like parcel lockers or post offices, may be less bad for the environment than home pickup services.

Experts say renting can be better in some cases, especially for special clothes for one event that may be worn once. But they also said people should think about how often they order, send, and return clothes.

Fletcher told people to “look in a wardrobe and at yourself before you look out and try to get a new piece.”

Amaya said people can help the earth by not using fast shipping and by choosing pickup delivery when they can.

Fletcher said the big problem in fashion cannot be fixed by one service or product.

For people who want to buy in a way that is better for the earth, experts said some easy choices may still be the best, like wearing clothes again, fixing things, swapping with friends, buying used things, or giving things away so people can keep using them.

"The best thing we can do is use fashion in a simple way. So, what it is like to wear clothes and not as something to buy," Fletcher said. "Fashion as shopping is something that industry has made us think is the only way to use fashion. And really, that will only cause more harm to the climate."

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