Understanding Consumer Behaviour in Textile Disposal: A study of motivational factors

Abstract

The purpose of this master thesis was to investigate consumer textile disposal behaviours in Norway, aiming to understand the motivations and factors influencing these behaviours. The ultimate goal was to support the transition towards a circular economy by providing insights into how to promote more sustainable textile disposal practices. Based on an extensive literature review on consumer behaviour, we identified seven independent variables- altruism, environmental attitude, convenience, general recycling behaviour, perceived value and economic benefit - that we expected to influence consumer disposal practices, along with demographic variables such as age, gender and education. The dependent variables, which represent the different disposal methods, were donation, take-back, re-sell, and discard. To explore the relationships between these variables, we developed hypotheses for each independent variable to explain the dependent variables. We then collected data using a survey and tested the hypotheses with ordinal regression and correlation analysis. Our study's findings indicate that gender has a significantly positive effect on donation, reselling, and discarding. In contrast, age has a significantly positive effect on take-back programs and reselling. Environmental attitude was found to positively affect donating, take-back, and discarding, while altruism has a positive impact on both donation and discarding. General recycling behaviour was found to significantly impact donation and discarding positively, while perceived value was found to affect only reselling. Lastly, this study found no significant influence of educational background, convenience, or economic benefit on predicting disposal practices. Based on the findings, this study argues that understanding consumer textile disposal behaviour is crucial for the development of strategies that encourage more sustainable disposal methods, ultimately contributing to a more ustainable and circular textile industry.