Survey Shows People Get Recycling But Not Energy Saving
22 August 2011
A new survey, conducted on INCPEN's behalf by Ipsos MORI in July of this year (2011), shows that half of adults in the UK understand the positive message about recycling their waste but don't understand the benefits of lower energy use
The survey shows that the wider changes in behaviour, which impact the environment positively - especially lower energy use - remain less well understood by the public when put in contrast with the messages about recycling.
When asked to choose up to 3 options from a list of things that people can do to help protect and improve the environment, over half (52 percent) chose "recycle bottles, cans, paper and other materials", the highest number of responses.
By contrast, just 15 percent chose "turn down the home heating" and only 22 percent chose "make fewer car journeys" and "use public transport".
Men were shown to be significantly more likely (18 percent) than women (13 percent) to choose "turn down home heating".
Critically, central heating/hot water is the second highest factor (24 percent) in a household's total impact on the environment (source: J M Kooijman, Environmental impact of packaging: performance in the household) yet turning down the heating was ranked at only 11th place on the list of options.
Director of INCPEN, Jane Bickerstaffe said, "It's good to see that people now realise there are lots of other things, as well as recycling, that they can do to live more sustainably. However, they are still not sure which actions make the most difference. Policy makers need to tell them where the biggest benefits are."
Darrel Moore
