UK Do Not Wear 73% Of Their Clothes And Waste 15% Of The Food They Buy

Movinga reveals the world’s most deluded countries in a bid to highlight our collective issues with waste and hoarding

• The UK, Switzerland, and Canada suffer the biggest lapse in judgement on their consumption levels
• The USA wastes the most food, however Belgium is the most deluded about their grocery shopping waste
• Russians are the most realistic when it comes to their habits

Berlin, Germany, 16/08/2018 – Relocation experts Movinga have released a study revealing the collective delusion we face as a society when it comes to hoarding and waste. Formed as part of a larger study on relocation trends to be released later this year, Movinga conducted a poll among 18,000 heads of households in 20 countries comparing individual’s perception on how much they own versus how much they actually use, to reveal the level of cognitive dissonance we live in. The results reveal that individuals are unable to perceive their own part in the global issues we face in terms of over-consumption and waste generation. Movinga hopes that this study can raise consciousness and spark a discussion on how we as individuals can do our part to help reduce wastage.

“At Movinga, we are personally invested in ways to make the moving process more effective and less stressful for our customers, however we are becoming increasingly aware of our responsibility towards the world we live in”, says Finn Age Hänsel, Managing Director at Movinga. “With the oceans becoming ever more polluted with plastic, and the fast fashion industry bigger than ever, it’s time to start encouraging individuals to reconsider whether they really need more stuff.”

Methodology: We first polled 18,000 heads of households in 20 countries with the following questions: What percentage of your wardrobe hasn’t been worn in the last 12 months?; What percentage of your grocery shopping ends up as waste?; Since your most recent move, what percentage of your transferred belongings are still not in use? We then collated the responses with data from the World Bank and other academic studies on the topic.

The study revealed that UK comes in place 17 with an average delusion of 23.33%, an average delusion of 39% for clothes that people think they wore during a year, an average delusion of 10% for food waste, and 21% for relocation. Overall, Russia was the country with the lowest level of delusion with 3.33% and Switzerland had the highest with 26.33%.

The full study allows the responses to be filtered based on these categories for a more in-depth exploration of the findings. You can find the original tables on Movinga’s website : https://www.movinga.de/en/wasteful-world-delusion-reality

Rank	Country	Percentage Average Delusion	What percentage of your wardrobe hasn’t been worn in the last 12 months?	What percentage of your grocery shopping ends up as waste?	Since your most recent move, what percentage of your transferred belongings are still not in use?
Perceived Value	Researched Value	Delusion Percentage	Perceived Value	Researched Value	Delusion Percentage	Perceived Value	Researched Value	Delusion Percentage
1	Russia	3.33%	47%	53%	6%	5%	6%	1%	8%	11%	3%
2	Sweden	9.33%	28%	58%	30%	10%	8%	-2%	12%	12%	0%
3	France	11.40%	55%	68%	13%	5%	14%	9%	6%	18%	12%
4	Japan	12.33%	38%	72%	34%	2%	4%	2%	5%	6%	1%
5	Austria	13.33%	39%	65%	26%	10%	13%	3%	6%	17%	11%
6	Poland	13.33%	38%	67%	29%	10%	12%	2%	8%	17%	9%
7	Brazil	14.00%	43%	76%	33%	4%	8%	4%	6%	11%	5%
8	Mexico	14.33%	33%	64%	31%	6%	13%	7%	7%	12%	5%
9	Finland	14.67%	31%	62%	31%	5%	11%	6%	5%	12%	7%
10	Spain	15.33%	42%	76%	34%	5%	8%	3%	8%	17%	9%
11	Denmark	15.67%	29%	74%	45%	10%	4%	-6%	8%	16%	8%
12	Netherlands	16.00%	38%	71%	33%	5%	8%	3%	6%	18%	12%
13	Norway	17.33%	36%	77%	41%	10%	7%	-3%	7%	21%	14%
14	Germany	18.13%	32%	64%	32%	6%	12%	6%	5%	21%	16%
15	Italy	20.33%	28%	81%	53%	8%	13%	5%	11%	14%	3%
16	USA	22.67%	43%	82%	39%	15%	24%	9%	15%	35%	20%
17	UK	23.33%	34%	73%	39%	5%	15%	10%	10%	31%	21%
18	Belgium	23.67%	26%	88%	62%	10%	14%	4%	10%	15%	5%
19	Canada	24.00%	39%	79%	40%	10%	21%	11%	10%	31%	21%
20	Switzerland	26.33%	26%	79%	53%	5%	18%	13%	9%	22%	13%

„At Movinga, we try to do our part as well. For instance, we make sure that every month at least 15 percent of our moves are optimized, reducing the total amount of CO2 emission caused by trucks on the roads. Also, we will soon offer our clients CO2 compensation for all moves”, says Finn Age Hänsel.

Further findings include:

Belgium has the highest delusion percentage for clothing at 62% (they thought they hadn’t worn 26% of their wardrobe in the last year but they actually hadn’t worn 88%), and Russia has the lowest at 6% (47%; 53%).

Switzerland has the highest delusion for grocery shopping waste at 13% (they thought they wasted 5% of food bought but they actually wasted 18%), and Denmark has the lowest, with a negative delusion of -6% (they thought they wasted 10% but only wasted 4%).

The UK has the highest level of delusion when it came to belongings in use after moving at 21% (they thought 10%, the reality was 31%), and Sweden has the lowest at 0% (they thought 12%, and they were correct.)

The USA has the highest levels of actual food waste with 24% of their weekly shop going to waste each week, the highest levels of unused belongings (35%), and the second highest percentage of unworn clothes (82%)

Source : https://www.movinga.de