Recycling habits and environmental responses to fast-fashion consumption: Enhancing the theory of planned behavior to predict Generation Y consumers’ purchase decisions

Abstract

Fast-fashion industry is characterized by short product life-cycles, high volatility, affordable prices, and consumers’ high impulse purchase decisions, which result in massive levels of waste and greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, Generation Y, the largest consumer of fast-fashion products, is believed to make this situation even worse, since their attitudes/intentions do not usually translate into actual pro-environmental behavior and they are still reluctant to dispose of their clothes through sustainable methods. However, the attitude/intention-behavior gap among Generation Y’s fast-fashion consumers remains poorly understood. The present study addresses this need by adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the link between attitudes, intentions, and behavior, taking into account consumers’ participation in recycling as a moderating variable. Results from a two-steps cluster analysis and a multiple moderated mediation analysis on a sample of 943 Italian Generation Y’s consumers of fast-fashion products show that the attitude/intention-behavior gap seems not to exist in the Generation Y’s context, since the favorable appraisal of sustainable products and consumption actually leads to socially-responsible consumer behavior. However, participation in recycling is found to reinforce the intention-behavior link only for individuals with high environmental attitudes. The present paper contributes to both fashion consumption and solid waste management literature by drawing connections between socially-responsible consumer behavior and recycling habits within the Generation Y’s cohort, thus deepening comprehension of this rather unexplored context. Moreover, this study reveals policy development areas that allow the fashion industry to meet customers’ needs in new ways.