‘Throwaway’ clothing culture
Ethnographic Research and System Design
The Goal : The intent of this study was- first to understand the different journeys of various stakeholders involved through a contextual research lens; second; to identify insights and possible areas of opportunity for improving the current state and to decreasing the waste stream.
Skill set used: Ethnographic Research, Contextual Research, Data Collection and Analysis, Observations, Interviews, Cultural Probe, Affinity Diagramming, Idea Visualization, Tool selection and application, and Conceptualizing.
Hunt Statement Problem Statement
To understand the behaviour of people with regards to their clothes which they don’t use anymore (previously worn by them).
In spite of several alternate solutions available, 85% of recyclable/reusable clothes end up in the landfill. In this day and age people don’t realise the kind of waste that is generated due to textile/ clothing as they are overshadowed by other problems prevailing in the society. Most of the youth indulge in fast fashion at a higher frequency now; they either don't discard old clothes or discard it in a non-eco-friendly manner.
An ideal situation would be where the consumer is more aware about their buying pattern and frequency; and that the user would be more conscious of what to buy, when to buy, where to buy and how to discard in an eco-friendly and economical manner.
Secondary Research
We focused on looking at the key facts and numbers, scanned through buzz reports and used tools such as keyword bibliometric, landscape innovation etc. to analyze our data from the secondary research. On the basis on our prior knowledge and data collected through secondary research we mind mapped in order to narrow down our focus.
Insight Note
For the fashion industry to thrive in the future it needs a fundamental redesign.
There is an opportunity to shift from the take-make-waste model that characterises it today by embracing circular economy principles.
This approach would see business models increase the use of clothes, clothes made from safe and renewable materials, and old clothes used to make new ones.
For this study, we decided to focus on only one aspect and dive into in-- We wanted to increase clothes utilisation
Stakeholder Map
Primary Research
Primary research is solely carried out to address a certain problem, which requires in-depth analysis. We chose to use a few techniques to conduct our primary research, namely -
Online Surveys ( n=90) : We made a quick online survey using Survey Monkey (an online software) with 9 questions related to our research topic
Conducting Interviews ( n=07 )
Since we interviewed people from different age groups, we got a lot of different answers and interesting findings. Some of the findings amongst many are:
People saw the value in donating, but still didn’t do it often enough.
They did not try out new ways of getting rid of clothes, just stuck to their old tried and tested ways.
They did not want to give away clothes which were defected, torn or were in a bad condition and hence, some of them trashed these clothes.
On-site Observation:
Avalon Exchange: Avalon exchange is a store for secondhand clothes, handbags and shoes.
The Future on Forsyth: a vintage clothing store.
Goodwill: A second hand store for clothing, shoes, toys, furniture and a lot more things.
Cultural Probe
Analysis
After collecting all our data through multiple data collecting methods we started to deconstruct it using multiple methods namely: AEIOU, Journey Maps, Empathy Map and Affinitization. With the help of these tools we came up with key stories of users which further helped us create personas. These methods really helped us to understand our findings better.
Affinity Mapping
After using multiple tools and methods to collect the data and to analyse it, we listed down our results or ‘key stories’. This list is very important as it highlights what we were looking for and key behaviour or thoughts of people when it came to donating, swapping or selling used clothes. This list also forms a ‘framework’ .
Personas
Intervention #1
How might we increase the frequency of people giving away/donating their clothes by making it convenient, accessible and time saving.
Our intervention: Sensor-ed donation basket: Having a donation basket with a sensor on the tip (at the house) that will inform the person that the basket is full and its time to donate. The person will be informed through a message “Your basket has reached the limit, should we schedule a pickup?. This pickup will inform the near-by donation store and second hand store to pickup the clothes. The person can choose to either donate or sell their clothes. Eventually, they receive either money or tax benefit receipt respectively all at the ease and comfort of their own house.
Intervention #2
How might we increase the frequency of people giving away/donating their clothes by making it convenient, accessible and time saving and by making the process transparent, so that people participate and contribute to the cause.
Our intervention: Donation + Upcycle programme by Kroger : Going to a grocery store like Kroger is a weekly activity; it generates a lot of waste in terms of plastic bags. We plan to involve both stakeholders (buyer and seller) to help reduce the waste by combining cloth waste and plastic waste. Kroger will run a campaign where they collect the waste clothes from their customers and turn them to upcycled cloth shopping bags, thus reducing the use of plastic bags. They can sell these bags to customers, and give rewards to people who participate in the donation process. This is a convenient method of donation as most people visit Kroger every few weeks and use too many plastic bags for each shopping trip.
Intervention #3
How might we make the donation process more convenient, time saving and accessible.
Our intervention: Donation Box + Farmers Market : Have a donation box at the farmers market as convenience and time are two constraints in the donation process. Goodwill and Salvation Army stores could have their donation boxes this point, since the event attracts a huge crowd weekly. Facebook groups can help inform the users about this. This will be in collaboration with the Farmers market. The farmers market organisers could give incentives to the people who donate and a tax receipt of the donation to make the process more transparent.
Intervention #4
How might we give incentives to the people who are conscious about clothe waste and actively participate in donation/recycle process
Our intervention: SCAD + Linkedin recognition: As nowadays companies seek-out future employees who are conscious about environment and as a macro trend of being sustainable and eco friendly corporates, we plan to build a collaboration between Linkedin and SCAD, where we award a virtual badge to recognise people who do their bit to donate and recycle clothes at SCAD. This acts like a validation and proof that can be displayed on Linkedin. This gives the impression to future employers that the person is environmentally conscious and does his bit.
