A landmark nationwide study has been launched in Australia to look into consumer fashion disposal habits.
- The RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles and the Graduate School of Business and Law have partnered to conduct to the study together with Kmart and Target Australia.
THE PROJECT: The study, supported by the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, is designed to better inform responsive policymaking and directly impact Australia’s fashion waste.
- The ‘Consumer Clothing Use & Disposal Behaviours’ study, led by Professor Alice Payne from the School of Fashion and Textiles, will aim to uncover whether this is an issue of consumer education, convenience and availability or additional factors that need to be addressed.
- Designed by a team of RMIT experts in sustainable fashion, consumer behaviour and marketing, the study will commence in May with an early release of a preliminary survey issued by both the Queensland Government and RMIT University.
- The survey findings will then be incorporated and released in the second half of 2024.
- The RMIT study will examine the research question, ‘How do Australian consumers acquire, use and dispose of their clothing?’ by conducting a nationally representative survey of clothing acquisition, use, reuse, and disposal to provide specific insights into the Australian context across different regions.
- A pilot survey and interviews with key stakeholders from across the clothing value chain will inform the development of the national survey.
- Key outcomes include: the development of baseline data for how Australians use, care for, and dispose of their clothing; Intervention points for clothing circularity across stages of design, production, laundering, repair and disposal as well as Identification of citizen awareness and behaviour gaps.
- The cross-disciplinary research team from the School of Fashion and Textiles and the Graduate School of Business and Law includes Professor Alice Payne, Professor Simon Pervan, Professor Mark Leenders, Dr Carol Tan, Dr Tony Cooper, Dr Ninh Nguyen, and Ms Paige Street.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Extending the lifespan of clothing and the materials they are made from means we can reduce environmental impacts and demand on natural resources, contributing to a more sustainable future. With 50 per cent of post-consumer textiles, including wearable clothing, finding their way into waste bins, our goal is to combat this waste of textile resources by better understanding consumer behaviour and attitudes to inform further support for extending the lifespan of clothing.
—Leanne Linard
Minister for the Environment, the Great Barrier Reef, Science and Innovation
Queensland Government
Understanding how people acquire, use and dispose of their clothing is key to developing the right initiatives to support sustainable change.
— Professor Alice Payne
School of Fashion and Textiles
RMIT
