Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes
Textiles are made in an unsustainable way and there is a need to find alternative ways and material to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, humans and animals. Problems like pollution, excessive water consumption and loss of soil fertility is a result of this lack of diversity. It is a ne...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | H3 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Economics
2013
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855570907244789760 |
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| author | Jönsson, Jenny Wätthammar, Tina |
| author_browse | Jönsson, Jenny Wätthammar, Tina |
| author_facet | Jönsson, Jenny Wätthammar, Tina |
| author_sort | Jönsson, Jenny |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Textiles are made in an unsustainable way and there is a need to find alternative ways and material to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, humans and animals. Problems like pollution, excessive water consumption and loss of soil fertility is a result of this lack of diversity. It is a necessity to find innovative alternatives in other fabrics due to the unsustainable use of cotton and polyester fibers. As in many other countries in the Western part of the world, in Sweden there is a rapid turnover and increased selling of clothes that result in increased textile waste. About 15 kilogram of textiles (net inflow) is consumed per person each year. Around three kilos of these 15 are either exported or given to charity. Consumers in Sweden throw away around half of the textiles bought per year and person.
More knowledge is needed in order to understand the consumer behavior and change it in a more sustainable direction. This knowledge is what is pursued in this study through interaction with the inhabitants of Uppsala, a city with approximately 200 000 residents. The focus is to try to pinpoint the secondhand purchasing- and donation behavior of the residents of Uppsala. The approach is both qualitative and quantitative research, through questionnaires and a focus group. Questionnaires are randomly handed out and respondents are collected through convenience sampling. The empirical study of this thesis is carried out in order to attempt to answer questions regarding why consumer purchase/not purchase secondhand clothes. Also why consumers donate/not donate clothes is a question set out to be answered. Yet another question regards different ways consumers dispose of unwanted clothes.
The main conclusion of this study is that consumers purchase secondhand clothes because they find it price worthy, to reduce the environmental impact and that unique items can be found in a secondhand shop. Consumers do not purchase secondhand clothes because they find it unhygienic and that the clothes are not as durable as newly manufactured clothes. The main reasons to why consumers donate clothes to second hand shops are to help the less fortunate, reduce the environmental impact and because it is the easiest way to dispose of unwanted clothes. Depending on the condition of the clothes the consumers select different ways to dispose of them. To donate clothes was common for unwanted whole and fully usable clothes and for worn out clothes it was common to dispose of them in the household waste.
From an environmental point of view it is better that the clothes is reused rather than being incinerated at waste stations. It is important to make it easier for the consumer to donate clothes, such as having available drop of sites. Another aspect is that the consumers need to be better informed about what happens with the donated clothes, so that the trust in the charities becomes stronger. If the consumers do not think that the clothes will be of proper use it can affect the donating behavior in a negative way. To purchase secondhand clothes is better for the environment than to purchase newly manufactures clothes. |
| format | H3 |
| id | RepoSLU5811 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Economics |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU58112024-05-04T01:41:44Z Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes Jönsson, Jenny Wätthammar, Tina attitudes behavior donating purchasing secondhand sustainable consumption textile industry Textiles are made in an unsustainable way and there is a need to find alternative ways and material to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, humans and animals. Problems like pollution, excessive water consumption and loss of soil fertility is a result of this lack of diversity. It is a necessity to find innovative alternatives in other fabrics due to the unsustainable use of cotton and polyester fibers. As in many other countries in the Western part of the world, in Sweden there is a rapid turnover and increased selling of clothes that result in increased textile waste. About 15 kilogram of textiles (net inflow) is consumed per person each year. Around three kilos of these 15 are either exported or given to charity. Consumers in Sweden throw away around half of the textiles bought per year and person. More knowledge is needed in order to understand the consumer behavior and change it in a more sustainable direction. This knowledge is what is pursued in this study through interaction with the inhabitants of Uppsala, a city with approximately 200 000 residents. The focus is to try to pinpoint the secondhand purchasing- and donation behavior of the residents of Uppsala. The approach is both qualitative and quantitative research, through questionnaires and a focus group. Questionnaires are randomly handed out and respondents are collected through convenience sampling. The empirical study of this thesis is carried out in order to attempt to answer questions regarding why consumer purchase/not purchase secondhand clothes. Also why consumers donate/not donate clothes is a question set out to be answered. Yet another question regards different ways consumers dispose of unwanted clothes. The main conclusion of this study is that consumers purchase secondhand clothes because they find it price worthy, to reduce the environmental impact and that unique items can be found in a secondhand shop. Consumers do not purchase secondhand clothes because they find it unhygienic and that the clothes are not as durable as newly manufactured clothes. The main reasons to why consumers donate clothes to second hand shops are to help the less fortunate, reduce the environmental impact and because it is the easiest way to dispose of unwanted clothes. Depending on the condition of the clothes the consumers select different ways to dispose of them. To donate clothes was common for unwanted whole and fully usable clothes and for worn out clothes it was common to dispose of them in the household waste. From an environmental point of view it is better that the clothes is reused rather than being incinerated at waste stations. It is important to make it easier for the consumer to donate clothes, such as having available drop of sites. Another aspect is that the consumers need to be better informed about what happens with the donated clothes, so that the trust in the charities becomes stronger. If the consumers do not think that the clothes will be of proper use it can affect the donating behavior in a negative way. To purchase secondhand clothes is better for the environment than to purchase newly manufactures clothes. Textilier är gjorda på ett ohållbart sätt och det finns ett behov av att hitta alternativa vägar och material för att minska de negativa effekterna på miljön, människor och djur. Problem som föroreningar, överdriven vattenförbrukning och minskad bördighet är en konsekvens av denna brist på mångfald. På grund av den ohållbara användningen av bomull och polyesterfiber är det nödvändigt att hitta innovativa alternativ. I Sverige sker en snabb omsättning och ökad försäljning av kläder som resulterar i ökat textilavfall. Cirka 15 kilo textilier (nettoinflöde) konsumeras per person varje år och cirka tre kilo av dessa 15 exporteras antingen eller skänks till välgörenhet. Konsumenter i Sverige slänger omkring hälften av köpta textilierna per år och person. Mer kunskap behövs för att förstå konsumenternas beteende och ändra det till en mer hållbar riktning. Denna kunskap är vad som eftersträvas i denna studie genom interaktion med invånarna i Uppsala, en stad med cirka 200 000 invånare. Tillvägagångssättet är både kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskning, genom frågeformulär och en fokusgrupp. Frågeformular delades ut till 170 slumpmässigt utvalda respondenter och en fokusgrupp med sju deltagare användes för att ge djup i studien. Den viktigaste slutsatsen av denna studie är att konsumenterna köper begagnade kläder eftersom de anser det vara prisvärt, för att minska miljöpåverkan och att unika objekt kan hittas i en secondhand butik. Konsumenter köper inte secondhand kläder eftersom de tycker det är ohygieniskt och att kläderna inte är lika hållbara som nyproducerade kläder. De främsta skälen till varför konsumenter skänker kläder till second hand butiker är att hjälpa de mindre lyckligt lottade, minska miljöpåverkan och för att det är det enklaste sättet att göra sig av med oönskade kläder. Beroende på klädernas skick väljer konsumentera olika sätt att göra sig av med kläderna. Att donera kläder var vanligt för oönskade hela och fullt användbara kläder och för slitna kläder var det vanligt att slänga i hushållssoporna. Ur miljösynpunkt är det bättre att kläderna återanvänds istället för att förbrännas vid avfallsstationer. Det är viktigt att göra det lättare för konsumenten att donera kläder, till exempel genom klädcontainers och dylikt. En annan aspekt är att konsumenterna behöver bli bättre informerade om vad som händer med donerade kläder, så att förtroendet för välgörenhetsorganisationer blir starkare. Om konsumenterna inte tror att kläderna kommer till bra användning kan det påverka donationsbeteendet på ett negativt sätt. Att köpa begagnade kläder är bättre för miljön än att köpa nyproducerade kläder. SLU/Dept. of Economics 2013 H3 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/5811/ |
| spellingShingle | attitudes behavior donating purchasing secondhand sustainable consumption textile industry Jönsson, Jenny Wätthammar, Tina Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title | Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title_full | Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title_fullStr | Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title_short | Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| title_sort | sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes |
| topic | attitudes behavior donating purchasing secondhand sustainable consumption textile industry |