Are Australian Consumers Ready to Wear Recycled Clothing to Practice Sustainable Consumption?

Rajesh Bahl, Tarun Panwar, Rajiv Padhye and Rajkishore Nayak ()
Additional contact information
Rajesh Bahl: School of Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3056, Australia
Tarun Panwar: School of Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3056, Australia
Rajiv Padhye: School of Fashion & Textiles, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3056, Australia
Rajkishore Nayak: Fashion Enterprise, School of Communication & Design, RMIT University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive review of the extant literature to explore if Australian consumers are ready to reuse clothing as a pathway to sustainability. In this study, sustainability aspects such as collaborative consumption, apparel disposal methods, acquisition of used clothing, consumer concerns and attitudes towards reuse, and sellers’ readiness to offer sustainable solutions to clothing consumption have been explored in the context of the Australian market. The most important research contribution of this paper is the answer to whether Australia is ready to adopt the reuse of clothing through remaking and repurposing as a sustainable approach for the consumption of clothing at its end-of-life (EOL). Facilitators and challenges for the secondhand clothing sector have also been discussed. The findings highlight challenges including consumer awareness, an unwillingness to use secondhand clothing, limited recycling facilities, the availability of brand-new cheaper clothing, and the limited range of secondhand clothing. The facilitators include government policies towards recycling, fashion brands’ initiatives, and high-quality rejected clothing with the potential for reuse. It has been established that creating consumer awareness of secondhand clothing is essential to penetrate the market. Furthermore, there are ample opportunities to research consumers and the clothing reuse and recycling sector in Australia.

Keywords: recycled clothing; Australian consumers; sustainability; challenges; consumer awareness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15451/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15451/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:21:p:15451-:d:1270804

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().