EAP 5 ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Name: Ninh Hoàng Lê Vy I.D. 23005175

Class: EAP5-0923-3
Assignment: (please circle) Res. Report

Assignment Question: (write out in full)

The habits of Gen Z towards recycling.

Due date: 7/10/2023 Date submitted: 6/10/2023

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Student’s Signature: Ninh Hoang Le Vy Date: 6/10/2023

EXTENSION – To be approved BEFORE original submission date

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 Recycling
Name: Ninh Hoàng Lê Vy

Class: EAP5-0923-3

Lecturer: Ms.Thy & Mr.Derek

Date submitted: 6/10/2023

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 Table of Contents

Abstract..................................................................................................................................3

Introduction.........................................................................................................................4

Methodology.........................................................................................................................6

Results....................................................................................................................................7

Discussion...........................................................................................................................14

References..........................................................................................................................16

Appendix..............................................................................................................................16

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 Abstract

This study examined the prospect of Gen Z towards recycling on a daily basis.

The instrument employed in this report was a form of questionnaire. A survey

involved 60 students from various high schools and universities in Ho Chi Minh

City. The students were asked questions regarding their knowledge, frequency,

and challenges of recycling, the activities which are involved in recycling they

tend to participate in, the demand for purchasing green goods, and their

beliefs about the importance of recycling to protect the environment. The

results showed that Gen Z has a tendency towards renovating recycling with

their advanced and positive thinking, and the desire to use eco-friendly

products. However, the study should be expanded to capture data in other

regions in Vietnam.

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 Introduction

In the contemporary world, the environment is more and more polluted in

different ways. Therefore, humans have to learn how to recycle their domestic

waste in daily life to reduce this situation. Besides, by the influence of the

Internet, generation Z – a young generation – can learn something about

recycling which contributes to protecting the environment.

The majority of researchers assume that Gen Z has an awareness of recycling

in their daily lives. Gazzola, Pavione, Pezzetti, and Grechi (2020) indicated that

the younger generations had a strong drive towards the sustainability of their

clothes. Gen Z tended to choose businesses that sell green products (Dabija,

Bejan, Dinu 2019). A study by Dębski and Borkowska-Niszczota (2020)

showed the attitude toward pro-ecological practices in accommodation

facilities.

However, the main point of these researches concentrated on Gen Z’s behavior

toward protecting the environment and the sustainability of their old clothes.

Besides, no specific studies showed the actions and attitudes of generation Z

about recycling in their daily life.

Therefore, this research aims to find out the habits of Gen Z toward daily

recycling of recycling waste, and the study hypothesizes that Gen Z is likely to

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revolutionize the recycling industry with progressive thinking, activism and the

need for green products.

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 Methodology

A survey through a questionnaire was conducted at English for Academic

Purposes of the International School of Business on 20 September 2023. There

were 60 participants who came from different high schools and universities,

including 31 females and 29 males. All of them were Vietnamese and living in

Ho Chi Minh City. The majority of them aged from 18 to 24 and there were 4

people who were more than 25 years old.

The survey was designed on Google Forms which can help researchers

approach the simple easily and collect the data rapidly. There was a set of 14

questions in this survey which included 2 demographic questions and 12

questions that indicated the habit of Gen Z in these days about recycling in

their daily life.

The participants received the link to the survey via online messaging

applications to answer the questionnaire. Even though there was a time

limitation required, the participants completed the survey in approximately 5

minutes. When the number of respondents met the requirement, the

researchers would lock the survey, the data would be collected automatically

by Google Forms, and the researchers create diagrams based on those data.

All the questions were filled out by the participants so the response rate was

100%.

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 Results

Figure 1:

The materials of products are usually used

21,7%
Recyclable
Non-recyclable
Both
8,3%

70%

The given illustration depicts the percentage of the two different kinds of

product materials that were usually used by generation Z.

Overall, it can be seen that the majority of respondents preferred both types of

product materials. Meanwhile, the share of non-recyclable products is the

lowest.

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In more detail, although the proportion of recyclable products makes up above

slightly one-fifth, the data of non-recyclable products forms 8,3%. With

respect

to the figure of both, 70% of respondents chose to use recyclable and non-

recyclable products at the same time.

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Figure 2:

The frequency of recycling

15%
Usually (more than 5 /month)
31.7% Sometimes (3-4 /month)
Hardly ever (1-2 /month)
Never

53.3%

The pie chart illustrates the frequency of recycling of Gen Z these days.

In general, the highest percentage is sometimes. However, there were no

respondents who chose never to recycle.

As can be seen in the illustration, on the one hand, the share of participants

who sometimes recycle reaches 53,3% whereas 0% of respondents chose

never to recycle. In addition, the figure of hardly ever is ranked the second

place in this chart, accounting for 31,7%, which is nearly twice as many as

more than the percentage of respondents who usually recycle.

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Figure 3:

The ways to r educe non-r ecycled

m ater ials in today' s developing lif e
80.00%

70.00% 67% 67%

60.00% 55% 53%

50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
Ues cloth bag when Do not use single-use Use paper, rice,wood, Recycle plastic waste
shopping plastic and bamboo products

Figure 3 shows the methods which the young generation preferred putting into

practice to reduce the amount of non-recyclable materials in recent times.

Overall, it can be seen that most participants were likely to use cloth bags

when shopping and use products which are made from natural materials such

as paper, rice, wood and bamboo. Nevertheless, the number of respondents

who chose to recycle plastic waste is the fewest.

It is obvious that there is a similarity between the data of using cloth bags

when shopping and the figure for using paper, rice, wood, and bamboo

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products, their percentages make up 66,7%. Besides, the portion of not using

single-use plastic

is more than that of recycling plastic waste (55% for the former and 53,3% for

the latter).

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Figure 4:

The f actor s that pr event r ecycling

70.00%
61.70%
60.00%

50.00% 48.30%
41.70%
40.00%

30.00%
23.30%
20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
Have no interest in re- Lack of knowledge Inconvenient Not have enough time
cycling

Figure 4 illustrates the elements which prevented generation Z from recycling.

In general, it is obviously seen that inconvenience is a reason why most

participants are unlikely to recycle.

Even though the percentage of inconvenience amounts to more slightly 60%,

the share of having no interest in recycling forms only about one-fifth. Besides,

48,3% of answers chose not to recycle because of their shortage of knowledge,

which is more about 7% than the figure of not having enough time.

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Figure 5:

The r ecycling acti viti es that Gen Z

tends to par tcipate in
70.00%
61.70%
60.00%
53.30%
50.00%

40.00% 36.70%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
Recycling workshops Recycling campaigns Donate money to Recycling
organizations

The given illustration depicts the recycling activities that generation Z was

likely to join.

Overall, donating money to Recycling organizations is the lowest data among

the three activities while the majority of respondents tended to participate in

recycling campaigns.

It can be obviously seen that the percentage of recycling campaigns reaches

61,7%; however, 36,7% is formed by the share of donating money to

Recycling organizations. As regards the figure for recycling workshops, its

portion makes up about a half.

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 Discussion

This study was carried out to discover the habits of Gen Z towards recycling in

their daily lives. It was hypothesized that people in this generation tend to

approach the recycling industry with open-minded thinking, activism and the

demand for green products.

In line with the hypothesis, with progressive thinking, their engagement and

the use of environmentally friendly items for consumption, Gen Z may have a

desire to change the recycling industry. To explain, there are two major

possible conclusions. Initially, generation Z is influenced significantly by the

information about recycling on social media such as TikTok, Facebook and

YouTube. Therefore, they can know the advantages of recycling and learn how

to recycle their domestic waste easily. Secondly, they were born and raised in

the context of pollution which is a serious issue around the world. They have

witnessed the consequences of this problem such as climate change and the

extinction of several species. Thus, they have a strong awareness of protecting

the environment, especially the importance of recycling.

The next finding is when recycling, Gen Z can meet some factors which deter

them from that because of inconvenience. They are living in the contemporary

world so they are used to convenience in their life. Unless this drawback is

overcome, they will not have an interest in recycling.

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The limitation of this study is the number of respondents being only 60 people,

too few to make a general conclusion for the research. Another limitation is the

survey is carried out in Ho Chi Minh City, so it is hard to extrapolate the

findings to the habits of young generations in other areas.

In the future, research should be conducted on a larger scale with an increased

number of participants doing the survey (400 is recommended).

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 References

Gazzola, P, Grechi, D, Pavione, E & Pezzett, R 2020, ‘Trends in the fashion

industry. The Perception of Sustainability and Circular Economy: A

Gender/Generation Quantitative Approach,’ Sustainability, vol. 12, issue 7, p.

2809, viewed 25 September 2023,

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072809.

Bejan, BM, Dabijia, DC & Dinu,V 2019, ’How sustainability oriented is

generation Z in retail? A literature review’, Transformations in Business &

Economics, vol. 18, issue 2, pp. 140-155, viewed 25 September 2023,

https://web.s.ebscohost.com/abstract?

direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=16484460&AN

=136924269&h=E9wT8nJKckU98W3U82yA2ofSwAgbnqmT1aFL3SioIEP6pPfK8

CO3p27L5UJFqaFm3HC0DvERVTYnpzdAK1uJaA%3d

%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=l

ogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite

%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d16484460%26AN%3d136924269.

Borkowska-Niszczota, M & Dębski, D 2020, ‘Consumer ecological behaviour

and attitudes towards pro-ecological activities in accommodation facilities by

generation Z’, Turyzm, no.2, pp. 43-50, viewed 25 September 2023,

https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=921427.

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 Appendix

1.What is your gender?

 Male

 Female

2. How old are you?

16-18 years old

18-24 years old

More than 25 years old

3. How do Gen Z students know about the word "recycle"?

Media

Network platform

Others

4. Which products’ material do you usually use?

 Recyclable (paper, cartons, steel,...)

 Non-recyclable (plastic, vinyl, foam materials,...)

 Both of these

5. How often do you recycle ?

Never

Hardly ever ( 1-2/ month)

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 Sometimes ( 3-4/month)

Usually ( more than 5/month )

6. How can you reduce non-recyclable materials in today's developing life?

 Use cloth bags when shopping

 Do not use single-use plastic

 Use paper, rice, wood, and bamboo products

 Recycle plastic waste

7. Do you think recycling is affected by many factors?

 Yes

 No

8. If recycling is affected by many factors, what prevents you from recycling?

 Have no interest in recycling

 Inconvenient

 Not have enough time

There are other priorities

9. In your opinion, what is the feasible solution for limiting those difficulties?

(You can choose more than one option)

 Participate in environmental classes

Making and implementing a plan for recycling

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 Schools increase lesson about 3R: Reduce -Recycle- Reuse

Organize more workshops on recycling

10. How often do you join activities for raising awareness about recycling in

your community?

 Always

 Usually

 Sometimes

 Rarely

 Never

11. Which of the following recycling activities do you tend to participate in?

 Recycling workshop

 Recycling campaigns

 Donate money to Recycling organizations

12. Which benefits do you think recycling brings most to the environment?

 Decrease pollution

Reduce waste sent to landfills

Decrease daily waste

Reduce usage of raw materials

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13. To what extent do you agree or disagree that GenZ should start to recycle

due to the previous benefits?

Strongly agree

Agree

 Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

14. Do you think your life would be better or worse after the recycling

awareness campaigns?

 Better

 Worse

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