9.29.2008

SC DHEC Residential Recycling Study 2006-2007

Last year, the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control conducted a survey regarding residential recycling. Some data is applicable to NC. I have highlighted it below.

- Twenty-three percent of respondents classify themselves as heavy recyclers, 33% as moderate recyclers, 20% as light recyclers and 23% as non-recyclers. So who do we target our education to? I have discussed this before on this blog when looking at the data from the National Recycling Coalition. Most groups are ignoring the non-recyclers (can’t be helped) and no need to educate your heavy recyclers, so should we focus our efforts on the 53% of moderate and light recyclers?

- Moderate recyclers tend to live in an urban area, be from middle-income households and are motivated to recycle by a genuine commitment to the environment.

- Light recyclers tend to recycle for economic reasons or because they are asked to. They take their recycling to a recycling center, live in a rural area, have a lower income and have lower education levels.

- Primary barriers to recycling relate to inconvenience and/or unavailability of recycling services.


- The most common and frequently recycled items include: aluminum cans, plastic jugs, plastic bottles and newspaper.


- One out of five respondents was aware of “The Recycle Guys” campaign. However, when this survey was conducted, Recycle Guys TV commercials had not been on air for two years. The ads have much higher “ratings” from students.


This is just a snap-shot of all the data found in this report. It also contains data about “Sources of information on recycling”, “General attitudes towards recycling” and “Recycling Barriers”.

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