The impact of COVID-19 on the attention to sustainable clothing consumption: Analysis of Baidu indexes on old clothes recycling, old clothes renovation and old clothes donation

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 epidemic has exerted tremendous impact on the public lifestyle. Due to the shortage of living materials, people have consciously saved the necessities of life, indirectly cultivating the environmental protection awareness and sustainability awareness. However, the public attention to clothing sustainability has been inclined. To explore the impact degree, the Baidu indexes on old clothes recycling, old clothes renovation and old clothes donation were analyzed. The STL algorithm was used for the decomposition of the time series of the public attention to isolate the trend components that can reflect the change trend;the index weights of the specific behaviors of sustainable clothing consumption before and after the COVID-19 epidemic were calculated using entropy method. The results have shown that the COVID-19 epidemic has increased the public attention to sustainable clothing consumption;during the post-epidemic period, the public have paid more attention to the sustainable behavior of old clothes recycling, and the attention to old clothes renovation and donation has declined. Therefore, according to the trend of change, targeted suggestions were proposed on the implementation of sustainable clothing consumption behaviors during the post-epidemic period. © 2021 China Silk Association. All rights reserved.