Clothing Mountains among U.S. College Students

Constantly changing fast fashion trends and low product prices attract consumers to amass mountains of clothing that they do not necessarily need. Consequently, consumers are discarding their clothing more quickly not caring if the unwanted items have been worn and not considering the environmental consequences of these actions.

To explore students’ clothing consumption behaviours and to develop a teaching plan for the prevention of unnecessary clothing accumulation, this study measures the clothing volumes students bought, used, and discarded during one school semester. Students were asked to track their clothing purchases over the semester, the number of times they wore the purchased garments, their reasoning for keeping the garments, or if the garment was discarded, the method they used to do so (e.g., trash, donate).  Students also reported information for each of their purchases including product description, brand, and price.

Purchases and usage. As shown in Image 1, within 3 months, 755 students had purchased 10,931 (m=14.5) new items for a cumulative total of $754,239 (m=$69). Non-renewable, blended materials (86%) were the most commonly purchased with 14% of items made from pure materials (e.g., 100% cotton); meaning only 14% of materials could be easily recycled. The most popular brands purchased were fast fashion brands such as H&M and Zara and the athletic brand Nike. Of the 10,931 items purchased, every 6th item had never been worn (n= 1,821), while the rest of the items purchased (n= 9,110) were on average worn 5 times only.

Disposal. Of all items purchased, every 4th item was trashed and sent directly to the landfill (n= 2,732). The reasons for disposal included poor quality, outdated style, and poor fit. Students were more likely to trash their clothing than to donate it, as only every 10th student indicated they donated clothes (n=750).

Educational strategies were identified to teach students about sustainability, responsible clothing purchasing, wear, and disposal. Specifically, strategies encouraging students to satisfy their need for “newness” without supporting the fast-fashion industry model (e.g. buying second-hand, holding clothing swaps) were developed, and alternative models to thinking about the “value” of clothing, such as emphasizing quality over quantity were also included in the development of the teaching plan.