We’re living in a society where environmental awareness is now at an all-time high.
In all forms of media, we’re urged to recycle, re use, drive less, cycle more and eat less meat – but what impact has more general awareness had on the public and our recycling habits?
How much are we recycling?
Since 2001, England has seen an astonishing jump in the amount of waste being collected by local authorities. The percentage of waste collected in 2019 stood at 43.5% – a 32.3% jump on 2001’s figure (11.2%). Whilst this figure might look impressive on first view, but due to local authority budget cuts the reality is that there has only been an increase of 3.8% since 2010.
How much are we still wasting, and why should we change?
Although we have as a community become more mindful of the impact our wastage has on the planet, these environmental stats showing how much we still waste don’t make for pleasant reading:
- British households create over 26 million tonnes of waste each year, which is the equivalent of around 260 large cruise ships.
- the average UK citizen throws away around 400kg of waste each year, which is 7 times their body weight.
But how much effect will it have if we begin to start making a few small changes to our recycling routine?
- Recycling a single glass bottle will save enough energy to power a laptop for half an hour.
- Recycling everything you could in your kitchen recycling bins could power a TV for six months.
- Recycling a single aluminium can will save enough energy to power a TV for up to three hours.
Think before you throw anything into your general bin – your actions really can harm (or save) the planet!
How have BEAM been doing our bit?
We’ve recently supported research to test the idea of converting plastic dispensers for cleaning products to paper or cardboard. The research also investigated the need for refillable dispensers. We managed focus groups in Manchester and London with cleaning fanatics, getting their take on the proposals – we’re happy to report that the ideas went down well!
As well as this, at the beginning of the year we worked with a research agency and household cleaning product manufacturer to test some new packaging and product concepts for their personal care range. The online ethnography and home-trial research tested ease and usability of dilutable products with different environmentally friendly packaging for across different sizes of households.
Does your eco-friendly service or product require any market research? Feel free to get in touch with our team today – our Project Managers will be able to help.