Sustainable shopping : consumer behavior in purchasing and donating secondhand clothes

Sammanfattning: 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.