1.2 BACKGROUND TO RESEARCH
Recycling has been the emerging trend since the 1970s as it was seen as an important aspect of waste reduction.
In the early `90s recycling was fully launched, making the public aware of the need to manage and reduce waste from household.
In a report by Grasso, M. and McEnally, R.M. (1999) Recycling in the USA, Sweden and South Africa;revealed that, in the 1980s organisations and consumers displayed the need and relevance of the environment. Consumers took advantage of the opportunity to establish social responsibility through the marketing of “green” eco friendly products. The products had the attribute of been easily recycled. Also consumers exhibited the social responsibility by purchasing the eco friendly products. From their actions they were able to minimize the damage caused by non eco friendly products to the environment.
However, according to a report from recycling-guide.org.uk, “why recycle” sourced from Defra.gov.uk, it was revealed that UK household produced 30.5million tonnes of waste in 2003/2004, of which 17% was collected for recycling. This figure is relatively low to some UK neighbours, which accounted for 50% of their waste, which was recycled.
1.3 IMPORTANCE OF AND MOTIVATION FOR THE RESEARCH
Landfills have been the preferred method of waste management. This practice was effective, but the increase in domestic, industry and commercial waste was consuming the available space, resulting in the reduction of sites lifespan.
Against this backdrop, it is imperative that new methods of waste management must be applied and one method of waste management is recycling. This process of waste management could be seen as more beneficial to the environment and people, as valuable materials can be separated, re organised and re used to produce new products.
Landfills will also derive some benefits as waste will be reduced and its lifespan will be increased.
The motive behind this research are to derive a clean and clear understanding of the attitude of consumers towards recycling in Leicester, also to evaluate the importance, in which consumers attach to this process of waste management and their willingness to take part in the reduction of waste.
1.4 CLARIFICATION OF TERMS
The most common and widely used terms by the public when talking about waste management are clarified below;
1.4.1 Municipal solid waste
This was referred to as the waste generated by residential homes, commercial facilities and institution by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2003) in their report titled “the solid waste management planning”. It was also classified as a non hazardous and as society no longer has any immediate use for it, it was then rejected and considered to be un-usable.
1.4.2 Recycling
According to many definitions online; recycling is the act of processing used or abandoned materials for the use of creating new products. Recycling tents to reduce air pollution, water pollution caused from land filling.
1.4.3 Land filling
Land filling is referred to as the method of disposing solid waste on land without creating hazard to the public health and safety. It includes covering the waste with a layer of the earth. (Word web dictionary)
2. MARKET TRENDS WITH REGARD TO RECYCLED PRODUCTS
The demand for products and services in the consumer market is dictated by marketing strategies employed by businesses to attract the end user. In order to develop and market a new or existing product, in the product development stage the role of packaging is vital. Marketers ensure that the packaging of their product is as attractive as possible, and this is easily achieved by using new materials.
However, another dilemma facing industries is that the present manufacturing process being used by them is not planned to accept recycled materials. Therefore, there is a need for businesses to change their focus and actively embark on using recycled materials and communicate the end user/consumers of the benefits to derive from purchasing the products produced from recycled materials.
Sections 2.1 will address the role of the consumer, their attitudes behaviours and purchasing patterns, their understanding of the new processes related to the products produced from recycled materials and the importance related to their acceptance of these products and packaging.
2.1 Consumer behaviour
Schiffman, L.Gand Kanuk, L.L. (2004). Defined Consumer behaviour in their book (Consumer Behaviour. 8th Edition) as a behaviour consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Consumers demonstrate these stages when making a product or service related purchase decision. This process includes what they buy, when they buy, why they buy, where they buy it, how often they buy, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluation on their future purchases and most importantly how they dispose of it. Therefore, the passage to a sustainable future will call for a change in the consumer behaviour, in the aspect of the true self and the ideal self of consumers.
2.2 Consumer awareness of the green marketing concept
According to Poulton (2003), the first rule of “green marketing” is to focus on the customer benefits. If this is done correctly, the potential to motivate clients to choose the “green product” over the competitors or even pay a higher premium for the more eco-friendly solutions is greater. These “Green” aspects must be the key focus of marketing strategies, with the focus being on reinforcing the brand value and the quality of products through the benefits by which consumer will gain, through environmental awareness.
2.3 Consumers and their concern for the environment
Roberts, J.A (1996) indicates in his report (Will the real socially responsible consumer please step forward) that consumers are moving from consumption and immediate gratification to conservation, with emphasis on efficient utilisation of resources, preserving environments, abating pollution, downsizing, recycling, and securing the world of tomorrow. Lazar, W., La Barbera, P., Mclachlen, J.M., and Smith, A.T. (1994) also illustrate in their report (Marketing 2000 and Beyond) that consumers are buying products from companies that donate part of their proceeds from the sale of the product to environmental causes, and that they boycott fur products, or products that involve the use of animals in product testing. When the increase in the concern for the environment takes first place then socially conscious consumer behaviour may become more popular in the future.
The next chapter will focus on the research methodology employed in this research.
3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research will focus on the attitude of respondents towards recycling and this section will also provide a brief on what the research tents to investigate. Thus, the research objectives are;
- To investigate whether there is a difference in consumer attitude towards recycling with regards to age group
- To examine customer awareness for eco friendly products.
- To investigate the belief of consumer towards recycling.
3.1 Respondent sample
In this research, stratified convenience sampling was used as each respondent will be chosen according to their willingness to participate in the survey
The respondents will be made to respond to a three page questionnaire about their perception, motivation, preferences to recycling.
3.2 Sample Size
According to the UK census (2009) which says, the population of Leicester is estimated at 285000; Therefore, the sample size will be 67 with a 12% confidence interval at a 95% confidence level. The total questionnaire distributed to respondent will be 134 with the estimated rate of response to be 50%.
3.3 Sample Framework
The research will be done in Leicester city and only people that reside in the city will be used, and must meet the requirements;
- Must be aware of environmental sustainability and
- Be presently involved in recycling.
3.4 Data collection Approach
Questionnaires will be administered at different times of the day and on different days of the week in high cross Leicester. The reason for choosing high cross is premised on the large influx of people doing actual shopping and window shopping.
Each day will be divided into three time allocations: the morning, lunch time and evening
3.5 Pre Testing
Pre-testing the questionnaire will be important to ensure that the respondents interpret the questions correctly and to evaluate the quality of the data collected.
The questionnaire was reviewed by the supervisor to check whether the questions would provide the type of data that would answer the research objectives.
The pre-test questionnaire was evaluated using 6 respondents by selecting 2 respondents from the marketing department (postgraduate) in De Montfort University (marketing management, advertising and public relations and strategic marketing department). This allowed the researcher to identify any problems which might exist while responding to the questionnaire also to ensure that the respondents could easily understand both the questions and the objectives of the research.
3.6 Data Analysis
A computerised statistical analysis of the data will be necessary to describe and interpret the data that will be obtained from the questionnaires. The results of the interviews will also be analysed using Statistical Programme for Social Science Version 16. The data will be analysed in order to identify the factors that will reveal their attitudes towards recycling.
3.6.1 Data preparation
Data preparation includes coding and editing (McDaniel and Gates, 2002). Editing is the process of ascertaining that questionnaires are filled out properly and completely. This involves checking for respondent errors. Coding refers to the process of grouping and assigning numeric codes identifying various respondents with a particular question. The questionnaires were pre-coded. In order to avoid coding problems, open-ended questions were not used in this study. Questionnaires that fell outside the sample parameters were discarded, and if it appeared that a respondent had not understood the question the decision was made whether to exclude that question or the whole questionnaire. Answers were also checked for inconsistencies.
3.7 Validity and Reliability
For this research, the researcher has tried to ensure face validity of the questionnaires.
3.7.1 Face Validity
In other to check the face validity of the response and whether the questionnaire covered the topic accurately, a pilot study was conducted and the results were scrutinised by a statistician.
3.7.2 Reliability
In other to check the reliability, usage pattern scale were measured and appropriate descriptive tests (which includes mean, medians, modes and standard deviations) and the appropriate inferential tests (which includes the appropriate correlation testing )were used.
3.8ETHICS
The aim of ethics in research is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from the research activities (Cooper and Schindler, 2001). Central to the concept of research is the safeguarding of respondents rights. In the process of this research, the researcher has done the following to ensure that the respondents rights are protected.
- Consent was sought before administering the questionnaires.
- Proper referencing was made for all reports used in the research.
- Questionnaires were coded to ensure anonymity. None of the respondents was named at any time during the research.
- Respondents were selected for their willingness to participate without force, and no risk to the respondents could be identified at any stage during the research.
- Respondents were treated with respect and courtesy throughout the research process.
3.8 Conclusion
This methodology describes all the processes that were involved in the conduct of the research. This research methodology also provides a better understanding of the next chapter which reports and explains the findings and expresses the result of the research.