Consumer Perceptions Related to Clothing Repair and Community Mending Events: A Circular Economy Perspective

Sonali Diddi,Ruoh-Nan Yan

doi:10.3390/su11195306

Abstract

While research focusing on clothing repair and community mending events as part of sustainable clothing consumption practices has been conducted in some developed European countries (e.g., the U.K. and the Netherlands), little research has examined consumer clothes mending/repairing behavior in a U.S. context. The purpose of this study was to explore U.S. consumers’ specific barriers and motivations to engage in clothing repair and their likelihood to participate in clothes mending and community mending events. An intercept survey approach was used to administer a questionnaire to participants who were attendees at three different events in a mid-sized city in Colorado, U.S. across a two-week time span. Data were collected from 254 participants. Path analysis was conducted to test four sets of hypotheses. The results suggested that consumers’ perceived barriers negatively influenced their mending frequency. Consumer’s perceived motivations positively influenced their attitudes toward mending, their mending frequency, and sustainable post-consumption clothing behaviors (SPCBs). Furthermore, participants’ attitudes toward mending, mending frequency, and their SPCBs positively influenced their intentions to mend clothes and to participate in community mending events. The current study advances the understanding of US consumers’ clothes mending behaviors and provides critical implications for local governments and education systems.

Highlights

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) [1] estimates that post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) constitutes to almost 6% of the municipal solid waste in the U.S landfills every year
This study addresses the call for further investigations by Laitala and Klepp [19], as it relates to the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to clothing repair in the U.S context
Perceived barriers and motivations were entered as the first set of exogenous variables, and attitude toward mending, clothes mending frequency, and sustainable post-consumption clothing behaviors were entered as the second set of exogenous variables, and clothes mending intention and intention to participate in community mending events as the endogenous variables

Summary

Introduction

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) [1] estimates that post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) constitutes to almost 6% of the municipal solid waste in the U.S landfills every year. PCTW has increased by almost 50% in the last 25 years, with 11.1 million tons (85%) of clothing ending up in the U.S landfills in 2015 alone. The overconsumption of fast fashion has had adverse effects on the earth’s natural resources, including its capacity to absorb greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous chemicals, the increased use of water, and the billions of tons of fashion disposal waste entering into landfills every year. At the current rate of fashion consumption, we will see about a 60% increase, amounting to approximately 148 million tons of fashion waste until 2030—almost 33 pounds per person on Earth [4]. The majority of the world’s fashion waste ends up in a landfill or is burnt, with only about 20% of fashion clothing reused or recycled [5]. The average North American consumer bought 35 lbs of new clothes in 2014—equivalent to 64 t-shirts or 16 pairs of jeans [4]

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Conclusion