Examining the role of normative influences in sustainable clothing disposal behaviors

Abstract

Over the past ten years, there has been a growing awareness on a global scale regarding environmental concerns, particularly in relation to the environment's sustainability and waste management. People are encouraged to adopt more sustainable consumption practices, including clothing disposal. This research field examines consumers' complex post-consumption practices, including how they choose sustainable disposal methods, consisting of philanthropic clothing disposal (donating, giving) and economical clothing disposal (reselling), especially in young adults consumers in Indonesia. Purposive sampling was used, and 251 respondents were found. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 and AMOS SEM 29 after being collected through Google Forms. This study's findings suggest that social norms significantly influence donation and resell behavior but do not affect giving. Conversely, subjective norms substantially impact all sustainable disposal behaviors, including reselling, donating, and giving. In contrast to environmental awareness, it has been demonstrated to have no significant effect on donating, giving, or reselling. Our hypothesis about environmental awareness and norms in sustainable apparel redistribution methods needs to be revised. The subjective norm is the biggest aspect influencing all sustainable behaviors and goes against environmental awareness. Despite this, social norms do not affect giving. This suggests customers are more willing to participate in sustainable disposal practices through philanthropic disposal (donating, giving) or economic disposal (reselling) when motivated or intervened by people they respect, particularly young adults.