1999 - What People Think About Waste

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3. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF MAIN ISSUES

3.1 WASTE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL

3.1.1 Awareness

Around one in three claim to think about what happens to their domestic waste after they put it in the bin. Slightly more (four out of ten) say that they know what happens to it. The majority of these (three out of four) believe their rubbish goes to landfill with one in four mentioning recycling and just one in six indicating that in their locality the waste is incinerated.
There is little awareness of the costs of dealing with domestic waste collection and disposal. Six out of ten people feel unable to make an estimate and, of the remainder, most have overestimated the actual cost and just 1% underestimated. Only 6% (down from 13% last year) selected the correct figure from four suggested annual costs per household.

3.1.2 Attitudes

For the first time a majority, 57%, agree with the idea of waste collection being charged per bin or bag to encourage recycling. This is a significant increase from last year's finding of 48%. Those who never recycle are clearly less likely to favour this approach.
The general public are evenly divided as to whether they are prepared for waste collection and disposal to be billed separately from Council Tax.
In line with last year's findings, recycling has almost universal acceptance as a disposal method. In comparison, composting and incineration are acceptable to around two out of three but landfill is acceptable to fewer than four out of ten. Also, whereas ratings are similar for recycling when talking about their own locality, they go down for incineration and landfill.
One in three (slightly fewer than in 1997) are aware of the presence in their locality of large recycling plants, landfill sites or incinerators. Two out of three people would prefer facilities to be built locally rather than transport rubbish further afield for disposal. The minority in favour of transportation generally believe that the waste should not be taken great distances - half of this group nominated distances of 20 miles or less. However, compared with last year, there is a slight increase in the tendency to approve transportation at all and for slightly greater distances.
In general, there is a significant difference in both awareness and attitudes between members of the public who may be considered "green" in their behaviour and others (by "green" we mean the 57% who recycle every 1-2 weeks and/or the 40% who are more likely to buy products because they are environmentally friendly). They tend to be more aware of where their waste goes, are more enthusiastic for recycling and composting and are more willing to have charging procedures that make people think about waste disposal.

3.2 RECYCLING

3.2.1 Behaviour

The pattern of recycling was similar to that identified last year with around nine out of ten people claiming to recycle at least one type of material. However, given that national figures indicate that around 7% of household waste is recycled (DETR/Welsh Office Municipal Waste Survey 1996-7), we can conclude that most of these people recycle only a small proportion of their household waste even if many do so fairly frequently.
Paper and magazines, glass and clothes are all recycled by at least seven out of ten while just over half the population claim to recycle cans and cardboard. Tin foil and plastics (three out of ten each) are least likely of the surveyed materials to be recycled at all.
There is little change in the frequency of recycling with the exception that a higher proportion of the public are recycling on a fortnightly rather than a weekly basis.
One in four respondents have the opportunity to use a kerbside collection service. For those needing to transport their waste to a recycling bank, those at supermarkets are used most with four in ten using these locations rather than recycling banks at either a council tip or elsewhere.
One in three (mostly older house dwellers) compost all or some of their organic waste.
Four out of five people re-use at least one of a number of surveyed items. Plastic bags and glass jars or bottles are re-used by around half the public and plastic containers or bottles by one in five. No other surveyed item is re-used by more than one in eight. There is a strong tendency for those who recycle to also re-use items when they can. Women are particularly likely to re-use goods.
For two out of five, their purchase decision will be affected by the knowledge that a product is made from recycled material. In the vast majority of cases, the influence is positive as people wish to help the environment and reduce waste and pollution. However, for some, this enthusiasm is tempered by concerns about cost and, to a lesser extent, quality. A very small proportion of people (around 3% of the population) would be deterred from buying a product by the knowledge that it is made from recycled materials.

3.2.2 Education and Publicity

One in four respondents have at least one child of school age and just over half of these have received information through their children about rubbish and recycling. Two thirds of the group receiving this school information - accounting for around 10% of the adult population - report that it has influenced their household and behaviour. This is therefore a productive way of educating not only children but also their parents.
Half the sample recalled some publicity in their local area about recycling or waste disposal facilities. This was a slight increase from last year.

3.3 DISCUSSION AND KEY FINDINGS

As was noted last year, in general, there is not a high level of awareness of issues relating to either waste collection and disposal or recycling. For example, only a minority think they know where their domestic waste goes (even if their assumptions are correct) and few are aware of the costs of waste collection and disposal.
In general, recycling is overwhelmingly seen as the most acceptable form of waste disposal while landfill - and, to a slightly lesser extent, incineration -is far less acceptable, particularly in an individual's locality. In addition, only a minority are comfortable with merely shifting the problems of disposal to another area by transporting waste. This conflicts with the fact that, at the present time, landfill and incineration are by far the most common forms of disposal.
There is an apparent discrepancy between the proportion of people who claim that they recycle all or some of their waste and the amount of waste which is known to be recycled (7%), suggesting most of those who do ever recycle only actually recycle a small proportion of their waste when they do so. Thus those who already recycle some goods (and there is a significant proportion who recycle only paper) need to be encouraged to consider the recycling of other materials also. Greater availability of kerbside collections is one possible route for this as it removes much of the effort required by the consumer.
Finally, taking together all the measures of environmental behaviour and attitudes, we can make some comments about the general profile of those who are most environmentally-friendly and conscious overall. On the whole, they tend to be older, aged 55 or above (and therefore include a substantial number who are not working as they are retired) and are relatively affluent. They therefore tend to own their own home, run a car and are more likely to live in a house than a flat. More affluent young people may also indicate such environmentally-friendly attitudes and behaviour and are particularly likely to support financial measures to encourage recycling.
By contrast, those who indicate the least environmentally-friendly attitudes and behaviour tend to be younger (18-34) and less affluent; they are more likely to live in rented accommodation, in a flat and to have no car. These general profiles, however, give only a broad indication of the characteristics of the two extreme groups; there are, for example, many younger and less well off people who can be regarded as very ' environmentally-friendly' in both behaviour and attitudes.
Indeed, the picture of young people is far from clear cut. Although less young people think about and say they know what happens to their rubbish after it is collected, recycle virtually every material, recycle frequently or compost, more say they are prepared to be billed for waste collection separately from Council Tax and charged per bin/bag or say that the fact a product is made from recycled materials would affect their purchasing division. This may well reflect the greater mobility of this age group and the smaller proportion that have a house, garden or car.
There is a strong influence on both awareness and behaviour resulting from educational initiatives and this is evidently a good route for influencing parents as well as educating children in what can and should be done for the environment via recycling and reuse.