Latvian citizens are becoming increasingly responsible when consuming textiles, according to a study of consumer habits when buying and using textiles carried out under the auspices of the LIFE Waste To Resources IP project. More often than not, people only buy new clothes and shoes when there is a practical need to do so - when the clothes have outlived their useful life, the seasons change or the clothes have been worn for a long time or for at least one year. The majority of people support the sorting and recycling of worn-out, unusable or outdated textiles, but they still point to shortcomings in the availability of infrastructure for sorting textiles.
According to the survey, almost half of the respondents rate their shoe and clothing purchasing habits as savvy, while 7% say they mostly buy clothes and shoes spontaneously. One fifth of respondents buy new clothes or shoes every month or more often, almost one third do so every 2 to 3 months and just over one fifth every do so 4 to 6 months. The most frequent purchasers of textiles are those aged 30-49, those in managerial positions, those living in households of four people and those in households with a total monthly income above €2,000.
The main reason given for buying new clothes and shoes is that existing clothes or shoes are worn out or torn, or because the seasons are changing (more than half of respondents). An equivalent number of people buy clothes and shoes because they are attractively priced and discounted, whereas over a third of respondents say they buy for emotional reasons or because their existing clothes and shoes no longer fit.
In most instances (69%), the Latvian public makes purchases of clothing and footwear in specialised clothing stores, while a third shop in online stores available in Latvia. A quarter of respondents buy shoes and clothes in second-hand shops. Textile products are purchased least often (less than 25%) from foreign online shops. According to the survey, Latvians spend an average of €304.00 per year on clothing and €218.10 on footwear, for a total of €518.20 per year on average on clothing and footwear. The quality of clothing and footwear is important to Latvians: 40% of those surveyed say quality is very important and only buy quality clothing or footwear, while 43% say quality is important most of the time, although they do not always buy quality clothing and footwear.
According to the survey replies, over half (52%) of the Latvian public are in the habit of buying second-hand textiles - 46% of respondents buy second-hand clothes, 18% - shoes, and 16% other second-hand textiles (curtains, carpets, bedspreads, etc.). The most frequent purchasers of second-hand textiles are 18-29 years old, women, people living in Vidzeme, people with low incomes and people living in a household of four or more people. In most cases, (90%) second-hand textiles are bought at second-hand clothing shops, but more rarely in response to advertisements on classified websites (25% on average) or on social networks (16%).
Overall, people in Latvia tend to wear the clothes they buy for at least one year. Almost a quarter (24%) of those surveyed say they wear their clothes for one to two years, and almost as many (25%) for three to four years. A fifth of Latvians (19%) say they use the clothes and shoes they buy for more than five years. Only 12% of respondents have worn their clothes for less than one year. Over half (59%) of respondents review their wardrobe and get rid of unworn, worn-out clothes and shoes once a year or even more often. Only 8% of the public admit that they neither review the contents of their wardrobe, nor get rid of unnecessary textiles.
When asked about what happens to worn out, unusable or outdated clothes, 60% of respondents say they use the clothes for work, 48% donate them to charity and 44% pass them ono other family members or friends. One third of respondents take their unwanted clothes to textile sorting containers and one quarter throw them into the household waste bin. Most people who are in the habit of taking textiles to textile sorting containers are residents of Riga, people with higher education, people living in households of four, and people with relatively high incomes (over €2,000). According to respondents who do not take their unusable clothes or shoes to sorting containers, the main reason for this is that they do not know where they can do so (43%), or the textile collection points are a long way away and hard to access (38%). It is worth noting that 10% of the respondents admitted that they did not know about special textile collection containers at all. At the same time, the vast majority (82%) of people who do not currently sort and deposit textiles in textile sorting containers state that they would be willing to do so if sorting infrastructure were provided close to where they live. The main motivators are the availability of textile containers close to home (71%), the availability of information on what happens to deposited textiles (30%) and the reduction of waste management costs resulting from people not disposing of textiles in municipal waste (27%).
When assessing the availability of textile sorting containers in Latvia, just over one fifth of respondents indicated that they did not know anything about such containers, 49% considered that they were not easily accessible, while only 29% viewed the existing infrastructure positively. The survey therefore demonstrates that there is a need to further inform the population about the possibilities of sorting textiles and to increase the availability of containers. The lowest awareness levels are among men, people aged 60-74 and those living in Latgale and large cities.
The majority of people in Latvia associate textile sorting and reuse with the activities of the charitable organisations Sarkanais Krusts and Otrā Elpa (35%). Fewer people mentioned waste management companies such as Latvijas Zaļais punkts (23%), Eco Baltia vide (11%), Clean R (9%) in the context of textile sorting and recycling. Almost 30% of the respondents could not name any organisation that they associate with textile sorting and recycling.
In light of the fact that European Union (EU) directives require EU Member States to provide a system for sorting and collecting unwanted textiles from 2025, the survey asked participants if they were in favour of the introduction of such a system in Latvia. The vast majority (90%) of the population support the introduction of such a system, but only 4% do not.
*The study “An Assessment of Consumers’ Textile Product Sorting Habits” was conducted under the auspices of Project No. LIFE20 IPE/LV/000014 – LIFE Waste To Resources IP in July 2022 by conducting an internet survey of 1,029 Latvian residents aged 18–74 years.
