Carried out earlier this year by Test Research, the EA’s survey asked a representative 2,516 householders about a variety of waste-oriented issues, and the general result showed that if recycling was made easier, consumers would get more involved.
However, although the desire to recycle is there, the facilities are apparently not – 39% of English respondents and 63% of Welsh respondents claimed they live in a borough where the local council collects no household waste for recycling.
Participation in established kerbside schemes has already shown results. Although only around 10% of those in the survey claimed to recycle plastic bottles at the moment, in areas with a kerbside collection scheme, the proportion of recyclers was 67%.
The idea of local councils charging householders for the exact amount of rubbish they produce proved unpopular in the survey – it was opposed by two in three respondents – but the exact reverse was true if councils were to make recycling easier, consumers would be largely in favour of paying for waste disposal by weight.
The survey also revealed the following:
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74% of respondents believe environmental concerns cannot be solved by local authorities alone
- Only one in five respondents actively dislike the idea of burning waste for energy
- One in three people don’t have time to sort waste for recycling
- The easiest products to be recycled are perceived to be newspapers (77% think it very easy) glass bottles (71%) cardboard boxes (70%), drinks cans (67%), garden cuttings (48%) and old clothes (48%).
- Electrical goods are perceived to be the hardest to recycle.
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