Toward a Sustainable Society: Waste Minimization Through Environmentally Conscious Consuming¹

Abstract

The experiment was an educational intervention that promoted and described an ongoing environmental tagging program located in a chain of three local grocery stores. Model Community, a nonprofit community organization, originated the environmental product tagging program that was present throughout the experimental educational intervention and was also responsible for sponsoring educational efforts in the local elementary schools and in the media. Over the period of a year, the experimental intervention was expected to stimulate self‐reported environmentally conscious consuming above the level generated by the tagging program alone and above the levels reported by shoppers who did not shop at the experimental stores. Environmentally conscious consuming or precycling implies buying products packaged in recyclable materials, buying least waste packaged (bulk or minimally packaged) products, and buying “safer earth” (nontoxic or alternatives to harsh chemicals) products. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant interaction effect of year (preintervention vs. postintervention) and group (experimental store vs. control group) on self‐reported environmentally friendly consuming, implying that the experimental educational intervention did not have an effect. An investigation of the significant main effect of shopping at the environmentally tagged stores showed a significant positive effect on purchasing less toxic products, knowledge about Model Community, and awareness of the environmental tagging program. An examination of more aggressive educational campaigns in future studies is warranted because of more overall positive (although not significant) environmental shopping behaviors reported in 1990, when there was an active education program for Model Community, than in 1991, when the program ceased.

How Similar are Recycling and Waste Reduction?

“…This finding is also consistent with previous work on conservation behavior (e.g., Ebreo et al, 1999;Linn, Vining, & Feeley, 1994) that has shown that whereas recycling constitutes a set of activities that are familiar to people, environmentally conscientious consumer behavior and other behaviors related to waste reduction are not as familiar or as frequently practiced by members of the general public (at least as indicated by self-reports). One possible explanation for this finding is that recycling and wastereduction behaviors are really two different classes of behavior with different antecedents and correlates.…”

An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change

“…recycling) while only a minority have focused on multiple (and similar) behaviours. However, caution should be exercised in assuming that the antecedents and concomitants of any particular behaviour are the same or even similar (Tracy & Oskamp, 1983-1984Vinning & Ebreo, 2002;Steg & Vlek, 2009) with factor analysis highlighting that recycling is not strongly related to energy, water conservation (Berger, 1997); and household purchasing behaviour (Ebreo & Vinning, 1994;Linn et al, 1994) for example. Research suggests that generalisation between behaviours might be the case only when the behaviours are closely related (Reams et al, 1996) and that the performance of one pro-environmental behaviour might actually inhibit or reduce the performance of others (Thorgersen, 1999).…”

Convergent and Divergent Validity of Three Measures of Conservation Behavior

“…Besides, no one wants incinerators or landfills in their community (Linn, Vining, & Feeley 1994). Source reduction and waste reduction include conscious consuming, reuse, and recycling (De Young, 1990-1991Linn et al, 1994).…”

“…Conscious consuming implies assuming a frugal lifestyle (De Young, 1990-1991 or the increase of consumer awareness directed toward avoiding purchases of non-environmentally friendly products (Linn et al, 1994). This latter option does not necessarily oppose the dominant consumerist lifestyle of industrialized countries because people would not decrease their total consumption.…”