Consumers' selection of textile products made from recycled fibres

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate consumers' selection patterns of textile products made from recycled fibres. A quasi‐experimental design was used. The 125 undergraduate students who participated in the study evaluated six identical sweatshirts and six identical carpet samples that were labelled with two manipulated information cues, price and fibre content. Chi‐square tests of independence were calculated to determine if there was a significant relationship between wearing apparel choice and home textile product choice when both price and fibre content were manipulated and when price was controlled and fibre content manipulated. The data indicated that when both price and fibre content were manipulated, over half of the subjects selected the lower priced sweatshirt and lower priced carpet regardless of fibre content. If a consumer selected a lower priced wearing apparel product s/he also selected a lower priced home textile product. When the price and fibre content were controlled, 66% of the respondents selected the sweatshirt labelled recycled polyester and 62% selected the recycled carpet. In addition, a consumer who selected a recycled wearing apparel product also selected a recycled home textile product. Results suggest that apparel and home textile products made from recycled fibres will be sellable if priced competitively with products made from virgin fibres.