A new study in the Journal of Global Fashion Marketing has found Australian millennials shopping on ultra-fast fashion platforms like Shein and Temu know exactly what the environmental cost is, and buy anyway. Researcher Dr Carol Tan calls it "strategic spontaneity": saving items to cart, waiting for the discount notification, then telling yourself it wasn't really impulsive.
What the study actually found
Researchers interviewed 20 Australian millennials who shop on ultra-fast fashion platforms. Affordability, convenience, promotions, social media trends, novelty, variety and social validation all ranked as stronger purchase drivers than any environmental concern. One participant summed up the awareness-action gap: "I know it's bad for the planet, but when I'm on a budget and need an outfit for Saturday, I just block that out."
The numbers driving the habit
Australians buy an average of 56 clothing items a year, and more than 200,000 tonnes of clothing ends up in Australian landfill annually. Ultra-fast fashion platforms release between 2,000 and 10,000 new styles a day, against a new collection every two to four weeks for traditional fast fashion brands.
What's actually changing (and what isn't)
France has banned ultra-fast fashion advertising outright and is phasing in a per-item fee that rises to €10 by 2030. Australia's response so far is the voluntary Seamless scheme, a 4 per cent per-garment levy that excludes overseas retailers like Shein and Temu entirely. Dr Tan's own recommendation isn't more guilt: she found "cost per wear" framing, working out what an item actually costs every time you wear it, shifts behaviour more effectively than sustainability messaging alone.
Read the full story from ABC News, 21 September 2026.
Related reading: This Hobart Op Shop Is Repairing Clothes Instead of Landfilling Them.
Cost-per-wear maths works just as well on a deodorant bar that lasts months as it does on a jacket you'll actually wear twice.