What Canadians spend on clothing, and what gets thrown away

What households spend

Statistics Canada tracks what households buy through its Survey of Household Spending. In a 2022 article about footwear and bedding, the agency reported that in 2019 the average Canadian household spent $271 on footwear for women and girls aged 14 and over and $185 for men and boys of the same age. Athletic footwear added another $183 per household on average, and spending on shoes for children under 14 came to $79.

These are only shoes, and they are averages. But they show something ordinary and important: clothing and footwear are a regular, repeated expense, spread across many small purchases that are easy to lose track of.

What happens to textiles afterwards

The federal government has been looking closely at the other end of the chain. In a consultation document on textile and apparel waste, Environment and Climate Change Canada cites the Statistics Canada pilot Physical Flow Account for plastic material. According to that account, around 290 kilotons of synthetic textile products, such as polyester, nylon or acrylic, were purchased in Canada in 2020, and around 280 kilotons were discarded as waste in the same year.

The same document notes that textiles were the fifth largest category of plastic waste discarded in Canada that year, and that very few textile and apparel products are recycled.

My view

Having worked in buying for a decade, I read these numbers as a story about volume. The system is built to move a great deal of clothing, and it works because most of us keep buying to fix a feeling that shopping cannot fix. When life changes, that urge gets stronger. A new job, a fresh start or a hard year can all feel like reasons to buy more.

What actually helps is the opposite. A wardrobe of 12 to 15 pieces that you understand well costs less to build, is easier to maintain and wears out slowly because every item is used. Clothing that is worn often and repaired when needed spends fewer of its years in the bin.

Three habits that follow from the data

• Count cost per wear. Divide the price by the number of times you expect to wear the piece. A garment worn fifty times is cheaper than one worn twice, whatever the tag says.
• Work with what you own first. Sort before you shop, and buy only for real gaps.
• Let pieces leave well. Repair, resell or donate what still has life, and check municipal textile programs in your area for what does not.