Circular Economy Principles and Their Influence on Attitudes to Consume Green Products in the Fashion Industry: A Study About Perceptions of Portuguese Students

Introduction

Circular economy has been evolving as a crucial approach comparatively to the linear economy. Nevertheless, studies that use empirical approaches to deeply research this phenomena are still in their infancy. Additionaly, according to Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017:18) “clothing represents more than 60% of the total textiles used and in the last 15 years, clothing production has approximately doubled, driven by a growing middle-class population across the globe and increased per capita sales in mature economies. At the same time, clothing use has declined by almost 40%. Both developments are mainly due to the ‘fast fashion’ phenomenon, with quicker turnaround of new styles, increased number of collections offered per year, and often, lower prices”. This fast fashion industry impacts negatively on environment due to the regular model of fast fashion consumption, the materials used and discarded in the manufacturies, and the production model based in large scale production in developing countries. The same report referred that if “fashion industry moved to a circular system the industry can unlock a USD 560 billion economic opportunity. Realising this opportunity requires new business models and collaboration across the value chain (e.g. production, marketing, and after-sales care), to keep safe materials in use”. This scenario justifies the development of more empirical studies on circular economy in fashion industry.

This chapter aims to study how CE principles influence attitudes in the green products consumption in the particular case of the fashion industry, using a sample collected among a higher education students population in Portugal.

This chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part addresses the background, i.e., the literature review with the main theorethical concepts, such as circular economy, circular economy principles, green products, green products in fashion industry, attitudes and awareness, benefits and perceptions. The second part of the chapter accounts for the empirical study and its results, and finally the last chapter exposes the concluding remarks.