Mentality of a Throw-Away Society : A study on sustainable consumption and the millennial perception of post-retail initiatives

Sammanfattning: The implication and rise of the fashion industry is not only affecting its consumers, but the whole world. As the fashion industry is proclaimed to be one of the largest contributors to climate change, and makes up for 4.8% of Swedish consumption (Centrum för konsumptionsvetenskap, 2016, p. 12), it is timely that more sustainable approaches must be taken. Disposing of one’s textiles is a vital part to reaching a more sustainable consumption, since many textiles can be recycled for redesign or to extract fibres. Post-retail initiatives are set out by many fashion firms, where they extend services to their customers in order to aid in sustainable clothing care or helping them dispose of their textiles in a more sustainable manner. The purpose of this study is to understand the perception of male consumers, a demographic that is often overlooked in fashion studies, and how they perceive post-retail initiatives, as well as looking into how male consumers take responsibility for their clothes after use. The following research questions: How are post-retail initiatives perceived by millennial men? How are sustainable clothing collections from a fast fashion company perceived by men? How do men take responsibility for their clothing when they are finished using them? Where does the responsibility lie of recycling clothes?   By using a qualitative method, in terms of semi-structured interviews, 8 participants were interviewed and questions with different themes such as: CSR, post-retail initiatives, sustainable consumption, behaviour and attitude towards sustainable consumption, fast fashion, and hedonism vs utilitarianism were used to code the data for analysis. The inductive nature of the study allowed for a model to be derived after data collection. By adapting a technological acceptance model (TAM) and a model for decision making of sustainable consumption the sustainable acceptance model (SAM) was made to interpret how external variables contribute to perceptions of sustainability and post-retail initiatives and how that can instigate a changed attitude or behaviour.    The SAM model helped to answer the research questions and showed that for perceptions to be formed, social and individual factors played a large role. One’s social context as well as situational and individual factors play a role in the perception of post-retail initiatives. The bearers of responsibility for textile recycling was believe to be in the hands of the municipalities, not the fashion industry, as they have a bigger influence of creating situational opportunities to instigate awareness for recycling textiles.   The findings show that perceptions of post-retail initiatives are derived from influences from external variables. Convenience plays a large role in perception as something that is perceived well must also be easily accessible. Clothing collections are not perceived well as availability over other convenient choices are not present. Responsibility for clothing varies from sale to donation, but an understanding was made that the lack of knowledge on where to dispose sustainably was limited. Responsibility for recycling clothing was said to be from a municipal level not the [clothing] industry level.