The textile industry has witnessed rapid growth due to fast fashion and the growing use of textile products, resulting in terribly increasing textile waste and biodiversity and humans. Therefore, a shift from a linear paradigm (take-make-use-discard) to a circular model of textiles production (take-make-use-recycle-remanufacture-reuse) is urgently required. Still, it can only be successful if consumers accept circular textile products (CTP). Hence, the study assesses the direct and indirect (via perceived risks and perceived benefits) influence of environmental consciousness on purchase intention. Moreover, the study also attempts to check the moderating role of product knowledge on the direct links between perceived risks, perceived benefits, and purchase intention such that the indirect effects of environmental consciousness (via perceived risks and perceived benefits) on purchase intention are conditioned at low/high levels of product knowledge. Collecting a sample of 409 respondents from the National Capital Region (NCR) and Aligarh in India, we used SEM to test the direct and indirect effects, while model-14 in Process Macro was used to measure conditional indirect effects. The results show that environmental consciousness directly influences purchase intention and perceived risks, and perceived benefits partially mediate the direct link between environmental consciousness and purchase intention. Further, product knowledge conditionally moderates the indirect effect of EC on PI (via perceived risks and perceived benefits) such that the mediating effects of perceived risks and perceived benefits significantly vary at low/high levels of product knowledge. The findings direct retail managers and decision-making bodies in the Indian textile industry to frame focused strategies for reducing textile waste and protecting the environment by developing bylaws in favor of circular economy and CTP.

The robust Indian textile industry results in prodigious consumption followed by equivalent waste, leading to environmental deterioration. The solution is circular textile production/products (CTPs), but their existence is almost absent in the Indian market due to a lack of focus on consumers’ acceptance of CTPs. To bridge the literature gap, the TPB model was extended to explore the antecedents that directly and indirectly influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards CTPs. The PLS-SEM (using Smart-PLS) was used to assess the structural model with the 409 samples collected through an online survey from the NCR of India. The findings revealed that personal benefits, environmental consciousness (except risk perception), perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms significantly and directly influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions towards CTPs. In addition, attitude significantly and indirectly mediates the relationship between “environmental consciousness, personal benefits (except risk perception)” and purchase intention towards CTPs. The finding offers pertinent information about the antecedents of CTPs that help the companies, marketers, and government to promote CTP acceptance and attain sustainability in the production and consumption of textile products in the Indian economy. Despite having product-specific and regional limitations, this research contributes significantly to the current literature on CTPs and their acceptance.