Nina Jobst
Research expert covering South Korea
Sustainable fashion consumption in Australia - statistics & facts
Sustainable fashion demand is gaining momentum. From threading the needle to purchase, awareness of the environmental and ethical prices of clothing consumption has become woven into the minds of Australia’s increasingly sustainability-focused consumer base. With fast fashion brands still having a strong foothold nationwide, the country’s consumers are starting to put more pressure on brands to provide eco-friendly and ethically produced apparel and to lower their manufacturing footprints. Yet, translating sustainability values into actions is proving harder than expected as Australia’s shoppers attempt to balance their quality, comfort, style, and price requirements alongside sustainability when considering which fashion items to purchase.
Australians’ desire to shop for fashion items sustainably is growing nationwide. Nonetheless, other purchase priorities, along with reluctance to buy from brands found to be making false or uncorroborated claims regarding material sourcing, manufacturing processes, and end products, hinder greater uptake and continue to exacerbate Australia’s clothing waste crisis.
Clothing waste crisis: fast fashion under the microscope
Australia’s apparel industry significantly contributes to the national waste crisis, with large quantities of clothing and textiles going to landfills each year. In response, more consumers are engaging in sustainable fashion consumption behaviors like eco-friendly clothing disposal through charitable donations, mending and repurposing items, and engaging in resale activities by selling to friends or via secondhand platforms like eBay and Depop. Despite these efforts, around 900 million garments countrywide still end up in landfills annually. The clothing and textiles industry issues still need to be solved at the root, with consumer behavior only one of many contributors to its continued unsustainable nature as one of Australia’s most polluting industries.Is Seamless the answer to closing the loop?
In collaboration with several major retailers, including BIG W, Cotton On, David Jones, The Iconic, Lorna Jane, and Rip Curl, the Australian Fashion Council (AFC) aims to put Australia’s fashion industry on the path to circularity by 2030 through its ‘Seamless’ initiative. Launched in June 2023, the scheme aims to improve clothing reuse and recycling through fostering circular business models, expanding collection and recycling points, incentivizing sustainable design and production, and introducing re-education campaigns on responsible acquisition, care, repair, and disposal. By 2030, the AFC hopes to have changed the fate of countless clothing items, giving them a new lease of life or remanufacturing residual textiles. Still, Australia has a long way to go to transition to a more circular clothing industry structure. Yet, with rising consumer awareness and increased retailer participation in circularity schemes, this goal may come to fruition.Key obstacles: high prices and greenwashing
While Australia’s shoppers would like to integrate sustainability more into their fashion purchase criteria, quality, comfort, and durability take center stage, according to a 2024 survey. Ethical considerations, including fair working conditions and wages alongside animal welfare, are taking greater priority when buying new clothing items, but a product’s eco-friendliness ranks lower. Furthermore, cost trumps environmental benefits as the top secondhand fashion purchase motivator. However, these other priorities could sway further sustainable purchasing with suitable incentives. High price tags and consumer skepticism of green claims, in which brands convey misleading information regarding the sustainability of goods and services provided, remain the largest eco-friendly fashion shopping hurdles. Thus, price incentives alongside clear and transparent labeling could be key to driving more environmentally friendly product purchases.Australians’ desire to shop for fashion items sustainably is growing nationwide. Nonetheless, other purchase priorities, along with reluctance to buy from brands found to be making false or uncorroborated claims regarding material sourcing, manufacturing processes, and end products, hinder greater uptake and continue to exacerbate Australia’s clothing waste crisis.
