Angela Ebreo

What Makes a Recycler?: A Comparison of Recyclers and Nonrecyclers

Knowledge and motivational factors represent important but neglected topics in the study of recycling behavior. This article examines differences in knowledge, motives, and demographic characteristics of people who have the opportunity to recycle voluntarily. Information on these variables was obtained for 197 households in Illinois. The results indicated that recyclers in general were more aware of publicity about recycling and more knowledgeable about materials that were recyclable in the local area and the means for recycling these materials than were nonrecyclers. While both recyclers and nonrecyclers were motivated by concerns for the environment, non-recyclers were more concerned with financial incentives to recycle, rewards for recycling, and with matters of personal convenience. Few demographic characteristics distinguished recyclers from nonrecyclers.

REDUCING SOLID WASTE : LINKING RECYCLING TO ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERISM

A survey of several communities was conducted to investigate the public’s response to solid waste issues. This study examines the relation between respondents’ beliefs about environmentally responsible consumerism and environmental attitudes, motives, and self-reported recycling behavior. The study addressed (a) the public’s perception of environment-related product attributes; (b) a sociodemographic characterization of environmentally concerned consumers; and (c) the depiction of the relations between attitudes, motives, recycling behavior, and environmental consumerism. The results indicated that respondents were most concerned about product toxicity and least concerned about product packaging. The data showed that only age and gender were predictive of respondents’ ratings. Several measures of general environmental concern, recycling attitudes, and recycling motives were found to be related to both categories of product attributes; when the measures were examined in combination, different measures were found to be related to each category. Respondents’ self-reported recycling behaviors were found to be related to source reduction and recycling.

How Similar are Recycling and Waste Reduction? Future Orientation and Reasons for Reducing Waste As Predictors of Self-Reported Behavior

The present research examined the relations between people’s self-reported recycling and waste reduction behaviors, their reasons or justifications for engaging in these behaviors, and their future orientation. The most engaging results of the project pertained to the observed relations between the consideration of future consequences and respondents’ self-reported recycling and waste-reduction behavior. The findings indicate that respondents’ concern for the future and their ratings of the importance of various justifications were related to recycling behaviors in a consistent manner. The relations between the same predictors and waste-reduction behaviors, however, were more complex. The findings also revealed that respondents’ tendencies to engage in waste-reduction behaviors were unrelated to their tendencies to recycle; that is, persons who perform one set of behaviors are not necessarily likely to perform the other. Some practical implications of these findings are also presented for developers of programs designed to increase public awareness of the need to reduce waste.

The Effect of Street Trees on Perceived Values of Residential Property

Recently sold suburban residential properties in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, were identified via a real estate agents multiple listing service (MLS). The residences were photographed from the street, the photos digitized to create computer files and then computer video-simulation techniques used to add three different size-class trees to the images. Public groups evaluated the individual color slide images for their expected property value and perceived attractiveness. Judged property value and attractiveness were highly correlated with the MLS recorded sales price. Tree size was not a main effect with either evaluation. For more expensive properties there was a slight increase in value for the addition of smaller trees, but a decrease associated with large trees. For less expensive properties there was no significant effect of tree presence or size. There were no effects related to subject group demographics. The results suggest the need for more caution in ascribing economic value to suburban street trees and for more research into the processes people use in weighing the risks and benefits of tree plantings. The image-editing method used in this quasi-experiment proved useful in allowing the easy manipulation of the study variable.

Are you thinking what i think you are? a study of actual and estimated goal priorities and decision preferences of resource managers, environmentalists, and the public

Abstract Although public and interest group input to resource management policy and decisions is considered valuable and is ojien legally mandated, interactions between these groups and government agencies and officials are often marked by conflict and animosity. We examined two potential sources of conflict among these groups: differences among the decision preferences and values of resource managers, members of an environmental group, and the public; and discrepancies between the groups’ perceptions of each others goal priorities or decision preferences and the actual responses. In general, the results provide evidence for a gulf not only between the actual responses of the three groups, but also between actual and expected responses. This indicates that finding a balance between the concerns of public and special interest groups and management mandates will involve not only assessing the positions of the three groups but also actively resolving discrepancies between expectations for others’ responses ...

An evaluation of the public response to a community recycling education program

Abstract Conserving resources and reducing the volume of garbage that must be incinerated or stored in landfills through recycling has become a major priority for many communities. Educational campaigns are often used to inform the public and induce recycling behavior. However, research evaluating the success of these campaigns has focused primarily on recycling behavior and not on cognitive factors such as awareness or motivation which may precede or accompany the behavior. This study evaluated the effects of a recycling education campaign on residents’ knowledge of recycling issues, motives to recycle, and recycling behavior. Residents of a Midwestern community were surveyed before and after implementation of a three‐year recycling education program. A comparison of pre‐ and post‐program survey results indicated that residents’ knowledge of recycling issues was more accurate, their motives reflected greater concern for the environment, and their recycling behavior increased after the education campaign.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF WASTE REDUCTION: A TEST OF THE NORM-ACTIVATION MODEL

The present study uses concepts from Schwartz’s norm activation model to predict self-reported waste reduction behavior, and examines whether direct measurement of moral norms can improve the model’s predictive ability. Data derived from a survey of residents of three communities in central Illinois were analyzed to examine the relationship between residents’ self-reported waste reduction behaviors, their personal and social norms related to waste reduction, ascribed responsibility for waste-related problems, and perceptions of the consequences of waste-related behaviors. Differences in the communities’ solid waste infrastructures provided the opportunity to examine the effects of external conditions on norms and other concepts of the norm activation model. Survey results provided no evidence that infrastructure differences affected respondents’ personal norms, and level of awareness of consequences for waste related problems. The data did reveal that ascriptions of responsibility and its interaction with personal norms were important predictors of respondents’ reported behaviors. *The data analyzed in this study are part of a larger dataset on the public response to waste reduction behaviors and solid waste management issues in three counties in downstate Illinois. Funding for the project was provided through a grant from the Illinois Office of Solid Waste Research. We appreciate the time and effort expended by our study resondents as well. This manuscript was completed while the first author was a post-doctoral fellow under the National Institute for Mental Health training program MH15730, Research Training in Medical Behavior Science awarded to the University of Kentucky, Thomas Garrity, Program Director.