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Report Sample Recycling
Report Sample Recycling
Report Sample Recycling
To:
DAVID OSHLACK
From:
(STUDENTS NAMES)
Class:
CD 85-322-18-03 (01)
Table of Contents
Page
Table of contents
i - ii
List of figures
iii
1. INTRODUCTION
1-4
1.1 Abstract
1.2 Introduction
1.3 Methodology
3-4
2. DISCUSSION
2.1 Waste
5-21
5
10
2.2 Recycling
13
11
12
14
16
17
3. CONCLUSION
18
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
19-20
19
19-20
5. REFERENCES
21-23
6. APPENDIX
24-27
APPENDIX 1
Questionnaire Sample
24-26
APPENDIX 2
27
ii
List of figures
Figure 1.1 Gender of respondents
Figure 1.2 Age group of respondents
3
3
7
8
10
11
12
14
15
16
17
17
19
20
21
iii
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Abstract
This research investigates the behaviors and attitudes towards waste and recycling among students
of HKU SPACE Community College. 50 copies of questionnaire, separated in two parts regarding
wastes and recycling respectively, are distributed. The information is collected from questionnaire,
printed and online books periodicals and electronic sources.
The findings of the first part reveal students only recycle few household wastes used in daily lives.
Half of the respondents use plastic bags less than 3 times per week and bring recycle bags with
them. Generally, the students know that plastic bag wastes may affect the environment, natural
resources and both human beings and animals.
The findings of the second part illustrate almost all students have joined different kinds of recycling
programs. By far the largest proportion of students supports the environmental levy scheme on
plastic bags and reduces the use of plastic bags after issuing the scheme. The results also suggest
that many students comprehend recycling can create better environment and ameliorate global
warming.
This survey has provided recommendations for the government with the aim of raising the citizens
environmental consciousness and efficiency of the recycling programs.
1.2 Introduction
Every day, large amount of wastes are produced. There are two types of wastes, solid wastes and
special wastes. Solid wastes include municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction waste; and
other special wastes such as chemical waste and livestock waste (HKSAR). Besides the solid
wastes, other serious pollutions are aroused in Hong Kong, air, noise and water pollutions are the
good illustrations.
To deal with the imminent waste problem in Hong Kong, the 3 landfills are the main waste
management facilities. However, because of increasing waste disposal associated with economic
development, the 3 landfills will be full by 2015 (Lui, 2003). Therefore, waste minimization and
recycling have been adopted as the guiding directions for the design of waste management policies.
In the recent years, the government has tried their best to raise the environmental consciousness
levels of the citizens and launched several recycling programs to control the waste disposal.
Recycling and environment conservation become the hot topics among people. The consequences
of waste disposal and advantages of recycling are spread.
It seems that the majority of people understand recycling is beneficial to the environment. However,
according to the statistics from Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the recovery rate of
domestic wastes is only 31% in 2008 (HK's domestic waste recycling rate rises to 31 pct, 2009).
It reveals that environmental consciousnesses of people need to be improved. People need to learn
from the mistakes and put more attentions on environment conservation. Recycling starts with a
person who is willing to make extra effort to separate useful materials in waste. Everyone can
easily participate in this activity.
1.3 Methodology
The objective of this research report is to examine the behaviors and attitudes towards waste and
recycling among students of HKU SPACE Community College. The survey was conducted at
HPCC campus. 50 copies of questionnaire were issued within October and the responses rates are
100%. Questionnaire sample can be referred to the appendix 1.
A large proportion of respondents are females (see Figure 1.1). Besides, the data collected in the
survey mainly implicates the intentions of the recycling behaviors and attitudes among the students
aged 19 21 because 3 of fifths of the respondents belong to this age group (see Figure 1.2).
The questionnaire is arranged to two main parts, the attitudes towards waste and recycling. There
are total 19 questions about the two main parts, with 11 questions asking about attitudes towards
3
wastes and 8 questions asking about recycling. In fact, it may be difficult to collect the exact data
from the respondents on several questions, such as the usage rate of plastic bags and the recycling
rate of the household wastes per week. This perhaps is due to the memory lapse that respondents
treat the using plastic bags or recycling household waste as habitual activities and dont pay much
attention on them.
Besides the questionnaire, secondary research is conducted with the aim of making the survey more
thorough and convincing. The study consists of quantitative and qualitative data collection. The
supporting data are collected from (1) printed and online books, (2) periodicals and (3) electronic
sources.
2.
DISCUSSION
2.1
Waste
demonstrates that the government does the insufficient promotion for the recycling campaigns and
needs to put more emphases on conservation education to ameliorate the peoples minds. According
to the survey results conducted by Friends of the Earth (HK) in 2006, over half of the respondents
said convenience is that main reason of using disposable plastic bags, surprisingly, almost 20% of
respondents said they have no other choice if not using the disposables. The above results revealed
that the environmental consciousnesses among Hong Kong citizens are quite low.
Regarding the students surveyed, from Figure 2.1, almost half of the respondents use 1 3 times
per week, closely followed by 4 6 times per week that around 30 percent of the respondents have
selected it. From the findings, it could be suggested that many people use few plastic bags per week.
However, compared to the fact that the enormous amount of the plastic bags are sent to the landfill,
it probably reveals that the plastic bags are rarely recycled. This is consistent with the results of
survey released by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in June, 2010 regarding the consumers
attitudes towards the eco-impact of shopping bags, in which around 40% of the respondents only
recycle 1 10% of the plastic bags they use.
recycle bags are printed with corporate logos, slogans. Generally, people think it is more
environmental friendly to use recycle bags than the plastic bags. However, Green Sense emphasizes
that recycle bags is not such environmental friendly and it could become the risk of our
environment because each recycle bag needs 10 times more plastic to produce than the throwaway
one. Each environmental friendly recycle bag covers its costs and environmental expenses only if it
is reused more than 10 times (Qiu, 2010).
The research director at Natural Capitalism Solutions, Nick Sterling, also indicates that many
recycle bags is made from nonwoven polypropylene which need 28 times more energy to produce
compared with the normal disposability bags (Gamerman, 2008).
According to the student surveyed, a plurality of respondent possess less than five recycle bags,
few of them possess more than 11 recycle bag. Although many respondents possess 1 5 recycle
bag, they only bring their recycle bags occasionally (see Figure 2.3). This could be suggested that
respondents not always reuse their recycle bags. This corresponds to the consumer survey results of
Hilex Poly Co., in which only 10% of their consumer reuse the recycle bags and bring disposable
bags back to the grocery store for recycling (Gamerman, 2008). People who answered not to bring
the recycle bags with them explain their reasons. 6 respondents out of 8 say that the main reason is
that it is easy to consume plastic shopping bags and the rest think bringing recycle bag is not
user-friendly (see Figure 2.3).
According to the surveys result form Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
Hong Kong is the most wasteful place in the world. On average, Hong Kong people produced twice
more as much rubbish as those in Japan In 2009, Hong Kong people had thrown away 6.45 million
tonnes of waste in landfills. Moreover, 2 million tonnes of wastes were produced from households,
while only a small amount of wastes had been recycled (Cheung 2010).
As can been seen from Figure 2.4, it indicates that over half of the respondents think that paper
causes the largest amount of household wastes. It directly illustrates paper is less recycled
compared with other household waste sources. The reasons for this result may also on the grounds
of the difficulties to sort the types of paper that can be recycled. Types of paper that can be recycled
8
refer to Appendix 2. The 25% of respondents believe plastic bag is the most wasteful. It shows that
it is urgent for the government, plastic bag producers and consumers to take their responsibilities to
solve the problem regarding the excess use of plastic bags.
Qiu (2010) notes that the Hong Kong government is considering enlarging the Tseung Kwan O
landfill because the other three landfills will be full within five years. Therefore, a green group
suggests that the Hong Kong government should charge for the disposal of household waste
regarding the "polluters pay" principle under the Producer Responsibility Scheme to encourage the
citizens to recycle and sort kitchen trash before throwing it away. The environmental groups believe
it can decrease the amount of household wastes and the use of landfill.
Figure 2.5, it indicates only a few respondents recycle household waste more than 10 times a week.
Also there are 24% of respondents who express that they are not recycling any household waste.
The result is in line with the low recycling rate, 31% in 2008. It seems that people generally dont
have adequate environmental consciousness.
Among the 50 respondents, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of extracting and refining
petroleum or natural gas are chosen by 38 and 28 respondents respectively. It could be suggested
that most of the respondents know that global warming and environmental resource base damages
are the consequences of plastic bag waste. Nearly 30% of respondents said marine animals are also
affected. Consequently, plastic bag wastes may affect the environment, natural resources and
organisms, both human and animals.
10
2.2 Recycling
2.2.1 Introduction to recycling
Luis study (2010) suggests that recycling is one of the most rapidly and successfully evolving
procedures of environmental conservation, and that the increasing environmental awareness caused
by the green movement has led to changes in attitude towards our traditionally wasteful society. He
goes on to assert that the government, waste producers and consumers should take the
responsibilities to deal with the waste problems and maintain a better environment for the next
generation. The first recycling scheme issued in Hong Kong was in 1998 (Lui, 2010). A Waste
Reduction Framework Plan was launched in 1998 which adopted recycling as one of the major
elements for waste policy. Two major types of barriers to waste recycling and reduction are
technical barriers and psychological barriers (Chung and Poon, 2010, p.25). Technical barriers
include lack of appropriate information or conveniently located bins. Psychological barriers include
the attitude of being troubled, and that too little waste was involved to be worth the effort.
11
Regarding our research, 68% of respondents report the right date of environmental levy (see Figure
2.7). It could be suggested that the environmental levy is a hot issue and most of the respondents
were concerned about the scheme.
compared to the per-capita disposal figure of 3 per person per day in 2005), according to the
research report of the Waste Management Policy Division of the EPD. The student survey reveals
that students support the environmental levy somewhat. This is illustrated by the survey results that
90% of respondents support the environmental levy but only 36% of respondents think that all
shops should charge for the tax.
As for the reasons of opposing the environmental levy, 3 respondents out of 5 think it is a sin tax
and only force people to do their responsibilities (see Figure 2.8). The declining use of plastics bags
is by virtue of the phenomenon that people only want to reduce expense, but not to protect the
environment. It is helpless to raise people's awareness on environment conservation.
13
In the light of the government survey, the majority of Hong Kong citizens reduce the use of plastic
bags after issuing the environmental levy Shopping Bags (The Environmental Levy Scheme for
Plastic Related Statistics, 2010). The results of the student survey are consistent with the
government survey. 76% of respondents decrease using plastic bags (see Figure 2.9).
Source
Separation
Domestic Waste
of 2005
Fluorescent
Lamp 2008
Recycling Programme
Plastic Bottles
Paper, Metal Cans, Plastic
Bottles and Plastic Bags
Fluorescent lamps
14
Number of respondents
15
From the above graph, 24 and 21 people think Plastic Bottles Recycling Programme and Source
Separation of Domestic Waste are useful for recycling respectively. It is consistent with the results
of the EPD. According the annual report of 2009, Source Separation of Domestic Waste is a major
contributor to the reduction of domestic waste. By the end of 2009, 1256 housing estates were
enrolled in the Programme against a target of 1140, representing 4.7 million people or 67% of Hong
Kongs population (EPD). It shows that the programme encourages residents to join and help to
protect the environment successfully.
which are chosen by 34, 30 and 21 respondents respectively. However, only few respondents
conceive that preventing natural disaster and saving natural animals are the advantages of
recycling.
3. CONCLUSION
In this research, we try to find the behavior and attitude towards waste and recycling among HKU
SPACE Community College students. The data collected has revealed their attitudes towards waste
disposals, mainly regarding municipal solid waste and their environmental consciousnesses.
The research shows that students are more aware of environment conservation and actively
participate in different kinds of recycling programmes. Although most of the students try to reduce
waste disposal and bring recycle bags with them, there are still room for improvement. It is because
more than half of the students recycle MSW less than 5 times per week. Ordinarily, the
consequences of wastes and advantages of recycling are well spread among the students. The
majority of students concern about the recycling policy, for instance, the environmental levy on
plastic bags. It indirectly reveals that many students understand they are responsible to improve the
environment and recycle the wastes, but they do not take action. It seems that the students
environmental consciousness is raising and consequently, the recovery rate of recyclables will
gradually increase in the coming year.
18
As recycling becomes a hot issue recently and affect all people in Hong Kong, several
recommendations on how the government and students raise efficiency of the recycling programs
and the environmental consciousness respectively are provided.
4. RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 Strengthen recycling policies in Hong Kong
If the government can take the first step to spread the advantages of recycling, it would be more
convincing to encourage the citizens to participate in the recycling programme. Lui suggests the
following methods to strengthen recycling policies:
1. Define target group and size of population clearly each program so that the participants can
organize themselves to rise to cooperation levels.
2. Set up more collection points and recycling bins
3. Increase the information flow to let participants have the updated information, such as provision
of a monthly statement telling the number of bags or how much of recyclable materials being
collected.
4. Promote the unpopular recycling program through more channels
5. Use reward or penalty basis strategy to increase recycling behavior
Besides the above methods suggested by Lui, Ashok also advices various methods. He suggests
that the government can limit the production of plastic bags and increase the number of recycling
bins in every building.
1.
2.
It may be annoying to bring the recyclable domestic wastes to recycling bins every
day. Therefore, people can firstly collect and sort the same kind of recyclable
domestic wastes together and put them into the recycling bins whenever you like.
3.
People can treat recycling as a family pastime and enlist everyone to consider if
something could be recycled instead of thrown away. Sometimes, there are more
motivation factors in a group activity than an individual action. The effectiveness is
also increased if the whole family recycles the wastes.
4.
Students can discuss the benefits of recycling which include helping the environment
and cutting down on your household garbage volume with his/her family. This helps
the family members become familiar with the various classes of recyclables,
including the various numbers on plastic. Therefore, students will get more
knowledge about recycling besides those from the government promotions and
educations.
20
References
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Bag levy hitting the poor. (17 Nov 2009), The Standard. Retrieved from http://www.
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&d_str=20091117&sear_year=2009
Cheung, Chi-fai. (2010, October 26). Refuse Mountain makes HK most wasteful place in world.
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Chu, Hahn, & Lau, Edwin. (2005). Waste Reduction = Cost Reduction A Time to Act
Friends of the Earth (HK)'s Response to the Policy Framework for Municipal Solid Waste
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Chui, Timothy. (2010, Nov 5). Double standard seen in bag levy. The Standard. Retrieved from
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Chung, S. S. & Poon C. S. (1995) International development abstracts 21.
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Gamerman, Ellen. (2008, Sept 26). An Inconvenient Bag. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from
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Gochfeld, Michael. (2010, Nov 7). Municipal Solid Waste. answer.com. Retrieved from http://www.
answers.com/topic/municipal-solid-waste
21
Hong Kong To Ban Free Plastic Bags. (2009, May 8) Chinacsr.com. Retrieved from
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How to Increase Recycling. (2010, Oct 31) wikihow.com. Retrieved from http://www.wikihow.com/
Increase-Recycling
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B31967280
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pe=1&d_str=20091117&sear_year=2009
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22
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56&con _type=1&d_str=20100621&sear_year=2010
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23
5. APPENDIX
1. For every question below, please mark a in the box that best reflects your opinion.
2. If you wish to express other opinions, please do so using the blank space.
3. Multiple answers are allowed in questions marked with *.
Female
2. Age
16-18
22-24
19-21
25 or above
6-10
No
No effect
Plastic bottles
13. How often do you recycle (Not reuse) your household waste (Paper, cans and plastic bottles)?
None
1 5 times per week
6 10 times per week
10 15 times per week
15 or above times per week
14. What would you do before putting household waste into recycling bins?*
Wash the plastic bottle
Sort out and wash the plastic bag
Sort out papers that cannot be recycled(E.g. Plastic-coated paper)
None of the above
15. What do you think are the consequence(s) of plastic shopping bag waste? *
Death of many marine animals
Greenhouse gas emissions
Pollution of extracting and refining petroleum or natural gas
Breaking down to smaller fragments which readily soak up toxins
Absorbing pre-existing organic pollutants
Being degraded over nearly 100 years
25
Magazine
Television
26
APPENDIX 2
27