The Get Redressed Consumer Survey

A small glimpse into wardrobe habits in Greater China

Redress surveyed fashion consumers living in Greater China to discover their attitudes and behaviours around how they consume, use, care and dispose of their clothing. The survey was conducted in order support Redress’ The Get Redressed Challenge, which educates and inspires consumers to change the way they dress. Our survey results reveal that consumers in Greater China are under-utilising much of their pre-existing wardrobe whilst simultaneously continuing to shop for new clothes on a regular basis.

The survey was conducted online between April to June in 2014 and 294 consumers completed it across a wide range of ages, with 61% of respondents aged 21-39 and 82% female and 18% male. Hong Kong consumers represented 89% of the respondents, with the remainder from Mainland China, Taiwan and Macau.

This small-scale survey indicates the need for education in Greater China about clothing consumption, use, care and disposal in order to promote more sustainable clothing management practices that will result in reduced environmental footprints associated with consumers’ wardrobes and reduced textile waste.

“The results demonstrate persistent trends in consumer clothing management that turns clothes into toxic garments in the hands of consumers. The fashion and textile industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries and other research indicates that consumers cause more negative environmental impacts, in how they wash, dry, care and dispose of their own clothing, than the fashion industry itself. Our Get Redressed consumer survey findings will fuel further action to educate consumers about reducing their environmental impact caused by their own clothing management,” said Christina Dean, CEO and Founder, Redress.

Our survey findings revealed:

Clothing Consumption:

Consumers are frequently buying new clothes and not secondhand. This increases the demand for virgin resources, depletes natural resources and leads to increased wastage.

• 62% buy new clothing items monthly
• 14% are regular secondhand shoppers
• 25% won’t buy secondhand clothing either because it is too cheap to buy new clothes or because they don’t feel comfortable with the – – idea of wearing what someone else has already worn

Clothing Use:

Consumers are not regularly wearing many of the clothes they already own. This represents inefficient use of resources.

• 62% have over 50 clothing items in their wardrobes
• 57% utilised less than half of their wardrobe in the last six months
• 12% wore more than 75% of their wardrobe in the last six months

Clothing Care:

Consumers have limited knowledge of how to care for their clothes. This, for example, results in excessive washing, which uses vast quantities of water and energy, and a shorter clothing lifespan.

• 55% don’t know how to repair their clothes and 30% do their own repairs
• 37% wash their clothing after only one wear
• 5% wash their clothing after four wears

Clothing Disposal:

There is high awareness about recycling unwanted clothes as opposed to binning them. When clothes are binned the valuable resources that went into making them are wasted.

• 80% donate their unwanted clothing to charity or give them to a recycling company
• 14% bin their unwanted clothes once they are finished with them
• 11% sell their unwanted clothes once they are finished with them

It’s time to Get Redressed…

Our survey shows that there is a lack of awareness and action around managing a more sustainable wardrobe. Consumers can greatly influence the environmental impact of their clothing through how they consume, use, care and dispose of their clothes. Join the Get Redressed Challenge to be informed and inspired…