Reviewing Clothing Consumption: How to Educate and Encourage Circular Economy Model in the Clothing Industry

Abstract

Clothes are generally seen as a basic human need. The clothing industry has grown significantly over the years in terms of its production-to-sales company life cycle, becoming one of the largest in the world today. It has become critical to rethink the business model of the apparel industry and implement a more sustainable method of conducting business because of the emergence of certain global problems such as climate change, business best practices, and sustainability. The clothing industry is known for its complex supply chain, and this is a result of globalization where companies move their production and manufacturing to lesser economies due to the availability of cheap labor and this leads to a lot of checks and balances being ignored as the linear mode of production is what is evident in the clothing and apparel industry and has been described as one of the top polluting industries. This makes waste generated from the clothing industry more of a global issue that should be addressed by all concerned. This paper seeks to examine how the circular economy practices when incorporated into the clothing industry can be beneficial and sustainable and also how important educating consumers and stakeholders to adopt circular practices can influence their consumption habits and what strategies promote circular economy in clothing industries through examples of sustainable business models, innovative technologies that the fashion industry and stakeholders can adopt and consumer awareness campaigns. This paper will leverage the theory of planned behaviour to analyse changes in consumer behaviour as it relates to the clothing industry and will also examine the role of government in creating policies that encourage sustainability in businesses and how these policies influence new sustainable business models in the clothing industry.