A new study that looked inside the wardrobes of consumers in Belgium found that the average person has nearly 200 garments in their wardrobes with one in five garments ‘dormant’ and never being used.
Published in the relatively new Journal of Circular Economy (Volume 3, issue 1), the researchers from KU Leuven in Belgium and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands said that 75% of these dormant items are still in good enough condition for reuse.
Meanwhile 75% of these dormant items were said to be in good enough condition for reuse, while participants were unwilling to part with almost 60% of these items, mainly due to future-use intentions.
Although the sample size was relatively small and from just one geographical location it’s thought that these insights could provide provide essential groundwork for developing effective interventions to intensify and extend the use of garments — key steps toward a circular and sustainable fashion industry.
