Readers, at the BuilderScrap.com offices we’ve been reading and are frankly astonished at peoples attitudes to Energy and climate change. We thought we’d share more of the findings

Respondents were asked to indicate which one of six statements best reflected their feelings with regard to energy use and climate change. Responses to the question are shown in Table 4 compared with findings from tracker surveys carried out by the Energy Saving Trust in 2007 and 2008.

Attitudes towards the environment and climate change

In total 85% of all respondents indicated that they thought climate change was caused by energy use (this is largely consistent with findings from the Energy Saving Trust Tracker surveys in 2008 and 2007). Just 4% specifically said they did not believe that there are climate change problems caused by energy use with 5% indicating they “didn’t know”.

Around one in ten respondents (9%) indicated that they were not willing or able to change their behaviour with regard to energy use. In this respect the findings from the current survey are very similar to those from the Energy Saving Trust Tracker surveys in 2008 and 2007 (10% expressed this same opinion both in 2008 and 2007).

A little more than a third (36%) of respondents said they thought that climate change was caused by energy use and they were doing either “quite a number of things‟ (27%) or “a lot of things‟ (9%) to reduce their energy use and emissions. This represents a significant increase since 2008 and 2007 (when respectively 19% and 20% said they were doing quite a number or a lot of things). There has also been a decrease in the proportion who said they were “beginning to think that I should do something‟ (17% in 2009 compared with 27% in 2008 and 29% in 2007).

“(9%) indicated that they were not willing or able to change their behaviour” . This attitude isn’t going to help us reduce our effect on the environment. If attitudes like this continue, we certainly will destroy our communities and undo the great work that the majority have undertaken.

Must try harder! get Recycling GB

Beliefs and attitudes towards the environment

More from the BuilderScrap.com team on environmental beliefs and attitudes. We love these posts!

Respondents were presented with a large number of belief and attitude statements and asked to indicate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each of these (on a five-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree). This section presents findings from responses to these statements, covering a range of beliefs about environmental issues as well as some motivations and barriers to further environmental behaviour, grouped together under three broad themes:

• Reported barriers and motivations – what motivates people to be environmentally-friendly and what are the barriers preventing people from being environmentally-friendly?

• Ecological world-view – what are people‟s views on the environment at a global level / on the way we use the Earth‟s resources?

• Persuading others – to what extent do people discuss environmental issues and try to persuade others to be environmentally-friendly?

Reported barriers and motivations

The survey included 17 statements related to what motivates people to be environmentally-friendly and what barriers prevent people from being environmentally-friendly. Table 2 provides a comparison of the proportion of respondents who agreed and disagreed with each statement between 2007 and 2009. Comparisons are available for all but two of the statements which were new in the 2009 survey

Attitudes

Agreement was highest for the following statements (which were expressed in a broadly positive way towards the environment) – more than half of all respondents agreed with each of these:

It really disappoints me when I see big offices and public buildings with their lights on when the building is empty (83% agreed, with 60% agreeing strongly)

• If government did more to tackle climate change, I‟d do more too (58% agreed, with 17% agreeing strongly)
• If business did more to tackle climate change, I would too (58% agreed, with 23% agreeing strongly)
• I sometimes feel guilty about doing things that harm the environment (55% agreed, with 13% agreeing strongly)
• I need more information on what I could do to be more environmentally friendly (55% agreed, with 13% agreeing strongly)

In contrast more than half of all respondents disagreed with each of the following statements (which were expressed in a broadly negative way towards the environment):

• It would embarrass me if my friends thought my lifestyle was purposefully environmentally friendly (74% disagreed, with 45% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s not worth me doing things to help the environment if others don’t do the same (65% disagreed, with 29% strongly disagreeing)
• The effects of climate change are too far in the future to really worry me (64% disagreed, with 30% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s only worth doing environmentally-friendly things if they save you money (61% disagreed, with 25% strongly disagreeing)
• It’s not worth Britain trying to combat climate change, because other countries will just cancel out what we do (55% disagreed, with 26% strongly disagreeing)
• I find it hard to change my habits to be more environmentally-friendly (54% disagreed, with 19% strongly disagreeing)
• Being green is an alternative lifestyle it’s not for the majority (51% disagreed, with 21% strongly disagreeing)’ve

We wonder if the respondents have ever heard of other phrases like recycling or Builders Exchange!

Knowledge of environmental terms

More from BuilderScrap.com on attitudes and knowledge of the environment. This is a continuation of the previous post comparing 2007 to 2009 in relation to environmental terms.
As in 2007, respondents were asked to indicate how much they knew, if anything about a range of environmental terms and concepts. Knowledge of other, more specific terms (including biodiversity and carbon offsetting) is dealt with later.

There had been no real change in perceived levels of knowledge between 2007 and 2009 except for the term carbon footprint. Reported knowledge of this had increased substantially since 2007 – 48% of respondents said they knew at least a fair amount about this in 2009 compared with 25% in 2007. While in 2007, 30% of respondents claimed to have never heard of it, in 2009 this had fallen to just 6%. Levels of knowledge about climate change, global warming and CO2 emissions were very similar to those reported in 2007. The majority of respondents said they knew either a lot or a fair amount about these. Very few people claimed to know nothing about these terms.

Possible conclusions from this graphic;

We’ve hit a saturation point relating to environmental reporting on Global Warming, CO2 Emissions and Climate Change . This could mean people know just about as much they care to, and aren’t being influenced anymore by those terms.

Possibly the environmental impact studies and news reporting on the subject haven’t increased over this time period. Maybe they’ve decreased.

Carbon Footprint has been promoted as a buzz term in the media, people relate more to it. It’s seen as an actionable goal (The perception is it can be altered) therefore people believe they can make a difference.

Your thoughts?

Public atitudes and behaviours towards the environment – tracker survey.  Final Report to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs; September 2009

Alex Thornton (2009). Public attitudes and behaviours towards the environment – tracker survey: A report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. TNS. Defra, London.

This research was commissioned and funded by Defra. The views expressed reflect the research findings and the authors‟ interpretation; they do not necessarily reflect Defra policy or opinions.

Beliefs and attitudes towards the environment and knowledge of environmental terms

This looks at respondents‟ beliefs and attitudes towards the environment and knowledge of environmental terms. All attitudinal measures reported here were included in the main survey 3. Where possible, findings are compared with those from previous research carried out by Defra (2007) and the Energy Saving Trust (over a series of tracker surveys between 2006 and 2008).

Perceptions of own lifestyle

Respondents were asked two questions to establish how much they felt they were doing that was environmentally-friendly and how happy they were with the amount they were doing to help the environment. The results from these two questions are presented in Table 1 compared with the equivalent results from the 2007 Defra survey.

Perceptions of own lifestyle

At BuilderScrap.com we like this type of quantitative survey as.  The numbers suggest that respondents do think of themselves as environmentally friendly, but a tiny variable wish to do more to help than were recorded in 2007

What do you guys think?

Here at BuilderScrap.com we love to find little hint’s, tips and useful information. We loved this snippet from the good people at home recycling.

Recycling office furniture

The Facts

* Up to £13 million of furniture is reused already each year
* There are many people locally, in reduced circumstances, who would welcome what you might be throwing away

REDUCE

* If you don’t need to replace then don’t

REUSE

* Give away to, and buy from charities – you’d be helping a good cause and saving a lot of hassle too
* Try selling your unwanted furniture and look around for second hand bargains

RECYCLE BASE MATERIALS

* Only recycle as one last resort before wasting
* Attempt to breakdown into separate recyclate groups

Don’t forget us at BuilderScrap.com we pride ourselves on re-use and stopping waste ending up in landfill.

A great article from Larry West on The Benefits of Metal Recycling. All of us in the BuilderScrap.com offices had a look at this one.
The United States recycles 150 million metric tons of scrap materials annually, including 85 million tons of iron and steel, 5.5 million tons of aluminium, 1.8 million tons of copper, 2 million tons of stainless steel, 1.2 million tons of lead and 420,000 tons of zinc, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). Other metals such as brass, bronze, magnesium and tin are recycled as well.

What are the benefits of recycling all that metal?
U.S. Exports Recycled Metal

In 2008, the scrap recycling industry generated $86 billion and supported 85,000 jobs. The recycled materials that the industry processes into raw material feedstock every year are used for industrial manufacturing around the world. In 2008, the United States exported $28.6 billion—roughly 44 million metric tons—of scrap commodities, which contributed significantly to U.S. trade balances.
Metal Recycling Saves Energy

Recycling scrap metal reduces greenhouse gas emissions and uses less energy than making metal from virgin ore. The amount of energy saved using various recycled metals compared to virgin ore is up to:

– 92 percent for aluminium
– 90 percent for copper
– 56 percent for steel

Metal Recycling Conserves Natural Resources

Metal recycling also conserves natural resources. Recycling one ton of steel conserves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone. Recycling a ton of aluminium conserves up to 8 tons of bauxite ore and 14 megawatt hours of electricity.

Can the UK do more?