IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

August 12, 2016

Waste management is prioritised by the public as an environmental behaviour

A US-based study has confirmed the prominent position that recycling and personal waste management take in the public consciousness.
Crucially, the researchers suggest that understanding the popularity of such waste-management activities could help policymakers promote other forms of pro-environmental behaviour.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the idea of solid waste as a serious environmental issue was heavily promoted to the public. Advertising campaigns, media attention and the support of social science research all helped to make recycling a routine activity throughout much of the EU, as well as the wider industrialised world.

However, the focus among environmentalists has shifted in recent years. Researchers no longer see waste management in itself as a major barrier to a greener world, but instead focus on more systemic challenges, such as climate change and water shortages. This can be observed in UNEP’s Emerging Issues in Our Global Environment series, in which waste management is conspicuous only by its absence.

The researchers explain that the planet is facing many environmental challenges that require a range of responses from the human population, including changing behaviour related to transport, food, purchasing and numerous other aspects of life. They set out to explore the extent of environmental behaviours among residents of the San Francisco Bay Area to see if they match the concerns of environmental scientists.

They conducted a telephone survey with 1 201 residents, as well as 14 community listening sessions comprising small focus-group-style gatherings with community institutions that included a total of 115 participants. Questions were asked regarding participants’ environmental concerns and what actions they may consequently be motivated to take.

Read more at : "Science for Environment Policy": European Commission DG Environment News Alert Service, edited by SCU, The University of the West of England, Bristol.

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