🎧Is Resale Reducing Consumption? Depop Went Looking.

NEW Pre-Loved Podcast 🎤 with Cathy Moscardini, Depop’s Head of Sustainability

Mar 23, 2026

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Today, we’re chatting with Cathy Moscardini, Depop’s Head of Sustainability. Listeners of this show, you of course know Depop – it’s one of the most culturally influential resale platforms in the world. Founded in 2011 with a mission to make fashion circular, the community-powered marketplace has grown to 56 million registered users, with over 136 million items given a second life.

Part vintage marketplace, part social community, as well as being a launchpad for many young entrepreneurs, Depop has helped reshape what it means to shop, sell, and style yourself in the digital age.

Cathy’s path here was anything but linear. A languages graduate who spent time in Chinese factories and volunteering in Nicaragua, she saw firsthand the vast distance between where fashion is made and where its consequences are felt. That experience lit a fire that took her into sustainability strategy eventually at Depop, where she's been focused on one of the most important questions in the circular economy: is resale actually reducing consumption, or just reshaping it?

"For resale to be a real climate solution, it has to be a direct alternative to buying new. That's why we don't just look at our sales. We look at displacement."
—Cathy Moscardini, Depop’s Head of Sustainability

During her time at Depop, Cathy has led the work of quantifying and communicating the real impact of resale — which has included developing industry-aligned methodologies in partnership with WRAP, as well as other resale platforms, and proving with data that buying secondhand is not just a trend, but a meaningful lever for changing fashion’s environmental footprint. She’s also the person making sure that sustainability isn’t siloed in one corner of Depop’s business, but woven into every product decision, every marketing campaign, and every feature designed to make it easier and more exciting to choose pre-loved.

Pre-Loved readers will be aware that last month eBay has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Depop from Etsy, who purchased Depop in 2021, for approximately a $1.2 billion cash deal – we’ve covered this news as it unfolded. At this time, there’s not much more to add, because while eBay and Etsy’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the deal, it will not close until the second quarter of this year, subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Instead, on today’s episode, we talk about what it actually takes to shift consumer behavior at scale, why emotional connection to our clothing is in fact a sustainability strategy, and what the data really says about whether secondhand shopping is displacing new production. We also get into the culture of resale — how it’s moved from the margins to the mainstream — and what Cathy believes needs to happen next to truly make fashion circular.

Let's right dive in. 🎧

DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:

[8:13] Cathy’s time abroad opened her eyes to the vast distance between where fashion is made and where its consequences are felt.
[12:28] Why fashion sustainability is uniquely complex — because fashion is tied to identity, making behavior change a deeply personal ask.
[13:21] Depop’s approach to shifting behavior: making resale more exciting, easier, and a better experience than buying new.
[16:38] How the pandemic accelerated Depop’s rise into the mainstream and helped strip away the stigma of secondhand shopping.
[18:24] What makes Depop distinct in the resale landscape
[30:57] Does cultural cache move the needle on sustainability behavior change?
[35:25] Whether a secondhand purchase stops someone from buying new
[41:53] Why emotional durability is a sustainability strategy
[45:11] The industry shifts that would most accelerate the circular fashion economy
[47:02] Resale is changing how people think about the long-term value of clothing across multiple lives.