“Sustainability in textiles and apparel: Educating consumers

toward zero waste”March 5, 2010

Dr. Celia Stall-Meadows

OCES Presentation Results

• A similar presentation was given on Jan. 21, 2010 to extension educators for their in-service training. The following slides show the results and discussion.

Results of Session A

• Question #1: On a scale of 1-10, how aware are you of the benefits of clothing recycling?– Pretest mean = 6.13– Posttest mean =8.96

• Question #2: On a scale of 1-10, how important is clothing and textile recycling to you?– Pretest mean = 6.83– Posttest mean =8.61

Dependent t-test

• A dependent t-test was used to compare pretest and posttest scores for Q#1 and Q#2.

• The t-value for Q# 1 was 5.87, while the t-value for Q# 2 was 4.66. The results were extremely statistically significant because the calculated values are greater than or equal to the critical value of t which is 1.717.

Q#9: What do (will) you do with your good condition clothing when you no longer want it?

Options for ranking: Pretest rank Posttest rank

Keep it at my home 5 5Donate it 1 1Throw in trash 6 6Sell it 3 3Give to friends/family 2 2Other (“make rags”) 4 4

Discussion:

• No planned behavior change from pre-test to posttest. In other words, participants seem satisfied with their current procedures for dealing with good condition unwanted clothing.

Question for today’s group:

• If you chose the “other” ranking, what did you have in mind?

Q#10: What do (will) you do with your worn out clothing when you no longer want it?

Options for ranking: Pretest rank Posttest rank

Keep it at my home 4 5Donate it 2 1Throw in trash 1 6Sell it 6 3Give to friends/family 5 4Other (primarily “make rags”)

3 2

Discussion

• Five of the six options moved only one place in the ranking (up one place or down one place). The only option that showed more than one rank difference from the pre-test to the posttest was the “throw in trash” option. This went from #1 to #6 in the rankings.

• After education, participants planned to trash “worn out” clothing only as a last resort.

Q#9: What do (will) you do with your stained/faded shirt when you no longer want it?

Options for ranking: Pretest PosttestKeep it at my home 2 3Donate it 4 1Throw in trash 3 6Sell it 6 5Give to friends/family 5 4Other (primarily “make rags”)

1 2

Discussion

• Four of the six options moved only one place in the rankings (up one place or down one place) from pretest to posttest. The two options that showed movement of more than one rank from the pretest to the posttest were the “donate” and “throw in trash” options. These moved three places each in the rankings (in a positive direction).

Q#9: What do (will) you do with your torn/holey t-shirt when you no longer want it?

Options for ranking: Pretest PosttestKeep it at my home 1 4Donate it 4 1Throw in trash 2 6Sell it 5 5Give to friends/family 3 3Other (primarily “make rags”)

1 2

Discussion

• “Donate it” and “keep it at my home” switched rankings (#1 and #4).

• The “throw in trash” option moved from second place ranking to last place ranking.

• The next two slides show a weighted percentage of this question, both for the pretest and posttest:

Weighted Rankings of Pretest: t-shirt with tears/holes responses

Weighted Rankings of Posttest: t-shirt with tears/holes responses

Conclusion

• Regarding all four questions, “donate it” moved to first place ranking in each posttest.

• Regarding all four questions, “throw in trash” moved to last place ranking in each posttest.

• Given these two planned behaviors, I conclude that an educational seminar does improve the chances that a person will be most likely to donate and least likely to trash unwanted clothing.

Questions/Comments?