UK shoppers would accept extended producer responsibility (EPR) charges of between 50p and £1 on an item of clothing without being deterred from buying, according to a survey of 876 consumers published in the journal Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, which estimates that charges at that level could raise £2 billion to £4 billion a year towards textile collection and recycling.

The study tested how large a charge could be added to a garment before shoppers noticed it, reconsidered a purchase, or abandoned it altogether. Across T-shirts, jeans and winter coats priced between £10 and £150, a charge of 50p on a £10 item, £1 on items above £20 and up to £3 on a £150 coat was found to be largely unnoticeable, equating to between two and five per cent of the price.

Charges began to change behaviour at higher levels. A charge above £2 on a £20 garment, or around £6 on a £150 coat, was enough to make shoppers reconsider, while the point at which a charge would put people off buying ranged from £3 on a low-cost T-shirt to £10 on a winter coat. More than 65 per cent of respondents found a charge of at least 50p on a £10 T-shirt acceptable, and 58 per cent accepted at least £1 on items costing £20 or more.

"One of the most important findings from this research is that consumer acceptance is not the barrier many policymakers assume it to be," said Kristina Bull, co-author of the study and co-founder of WEFT, an organisation developing a data-driven EPR charge system for fashion and textiles. "Modest EPR charges, clearly explained and visibly presented, could be introduced without putting shoppers off. They could even help shoppers with choosing lower impact products."

How the charge appeared at the till mattered to respondents. 81 per cent preferred a visible charge displayed at the point of sale over an invisible one folded into the price, and 56 per cent favoured a traffic-light label that paired the charge with a colour-coded recyclability score, green for lower-impact garments and red for higher-impact ones. The research also found that consumers disliked the word "fee", and responded better to "charge" or "contribution".

The level of charge shoppers found unnoticeable was not linked to income or education, though younger consumers accepted slightly higher charges on cheaper items. Price, comfort, fit and durability ranked well above environmental factors among the reasons people gave for their clothing choices, and 73 per cent of respondents said they would like to see an EPR system introduced.

The findings address a question facing UK policymakers, as the country currently has no EPR scheme for clothing and textile collection, sorting and recycling has no dedicated funding stream. The authors note that with around 4.3 billion garments expected to be bought in the UK by 2029, a charge of 50p to £1 an item could raise £2 billion to £4 billion a year, well above the levels operating elsewhere. France applies an eco-modulated fee averaging about four euro cents (roughly 3p) a garment.

The study was conducted by QSA Partners and the University of Leeds and funded through the Natural Environment Research Council's circular fashion and textiles research programme.

"That matters because the UK urgently needs a sustainable funding mechanism for textile collection, sorting, reuse and recycling," Bull said. "EPR can provide that, but only if the system is fair, transparent and designed around evidence. UK shoppers are not put off by the realities of EPR. Now is the time for Government to put policy in place, and for brands to work with us to do more real person research."