(RECYCLING AND RE-USING)

By: Abdelrazzaq A. AbuShahout

Supervised By: John. Stenchion
Abstract:

The aim of this report is to show who is more concerned from the international
males or females in recycling and reusing in their daily life.

The survey was conducted on a random sample of 40 international students. The

survey reveals that the majority of the respondents are concerned of recycling and
reusing, but the findings carried out that the females are more likely to recycle than
the males. The recycling process is not expensive to do, which will affect on final
product prices. Quite many people are not aware enough on recycling and reusing
benefits and the impact on reducing the global warming, as well as a solution to
avoid the consuming in the raw materials.

According to the findings shows that the international females are more likely to
recycle than males, therefore the hypothesis of the research is disproven.

Introduction:

This research presents some facts and information on recycling and reusing from
different sources. Some findings collated from international students in different
course levels and different cultures. Global warming considered an issue facing the
world. The questionnaire designed based on the hypothesis “that among the
international students the males are more likely to recycle and reuse than females
in their daily life”.

Several previous researches have been conducted on recycling and reusing. The
annual report was published by the Australian government, ‘Department of
environment, water, heritage and the arts’. Presents key information on waste
management and resources recovery, as well as discussed the impact of landfill,
recycling on global warming. Missouri’s department of natural resources report show
some tips on reducing the waste and conserving the resources. ”The three R’s,
reduce, recycling and reuse all helps to cut down the amount of waste we
throw away”. (Missouri’s report)

Also Morgan’s book on waste recycling and reusing, discussed the waste problem
facing the world. As a result of the study “that people can afford to buy
consumer goods such as cars, fridges, mobile phones, televisions. The
manufacture of these products is decreasing in our resources faster than
they are being produced”. (Morgan, 2009). Bovea’s research on municipal waste
management strategies aim to propose alternative system for municipal solid waste.
The results of the study reveal “that recycling allows pollution burden to be
avoided since it avoids the consumption of the raw materials”. (Bovea,
2009)

All of these researches did not specify the study on international people living in
foreign country, or those people who will change their environment behaviour to
follow the recycling regulations. Many countries provide awareness campaigns on
recycling and reusing to aware the people the benefits of recycling. “A highly
successful recycling programme has been running in Curitiba, brazil since
1989 the ‘garbage that is not garbage’ programme has joined by 90% of
residents they each receive 2 kg of food for every 4 kg of recyclable
rubbish they deliver to mobile recycling units” (Morgan, 2009). This could be a
method to encourage the people to recycle their waste. Minimising the waste is a
way to avoid the pollution by land filling of mixture wastes. Each person should
individually find a new way for shopping carefully, such as “Buy products in bulk,
Buy durable goods, Avoid disposable goods, Avoid over-packaged goods”.
(Missouri’s report, 2010)

Methodology:

In this research the data was collected using a questionnaire distributed on a

random sample from the international students in ACL, which included 20 males and
20 females from different course levels in ACL centre. They were surveyed about
recycling and reusing to figure out what background did they have on recycling and
reusing, and who is more likely to recycle.

The questionnaire was consisted of 11 questions with two sections, the first section
contain 3 questions related to personal information, such as Age, gender and
nationality. The second section consisted of 10 questions connected directly to the
topic.

In the first question in section two the students were asked about the global
warming issue, if they were concerned about it, which affect on the whole world. The
second question focused on one of the benefits of recycling and reusing to decrease
the amount of the greenhouse gases effects on the ozone layer depletion. The
concept of third question on recycling the wastes is to reduce the soil and air
pollution from land filling and reducing the amount of wastes. The next question
related directly to the hypothesis looking for who is doing more recycling in their
daily life. The whole recycling process it will be expensive than the other
alternatives to do or not, as well the cost to manufacturing new products using the
recycled materials. As well in the last questions the respondents were asked
generally on recycling. To figure out from where did they have their background on
recycling, such as government campaigns, advertisements or internet. Therefore the
respondents were asked which material they prefer to be recycled, the meaning of
the recycling sign and how the recycling process works.

The results were analysed using the variation ratio and displayed into chart for each
question.

The results:

The charts below displayed the data from table (1) in the back.

Chart (1) above shows the result of the first question, which present how much each
gender is concerned of global warming. Here you can see that females are more
concerned about the global warming (100%) than males (90%). The proper
explanation of this result it might be true that females are more aware than males
about the environment and global problems, but did they support the environment
by recycling.
Chart (2) above shows that the respondents believed of recycling effect it will be
positively or negatively to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases. Somewhat
more females (95%) believed positively that recycling will affects positively to
reduce those gases than males (90%). The explanation of these percentages that
both gender are convinced that recycling and reusing will reduce the emission.

Chart (3) above shows that recycling will reduce the amount of wastes we throw in
land fill. As can be seen from the chart (95%) of each males and females agreed that
recycling will decrease the amount of wastes if we recycle the recyclable products.

One of recycling benefits that the respondents are aware of is to reduce the amount
of wastes, which cause soil and air pollution in land fill.

Chart (4) above displays how often the respondents do recycling in their daily life. If
we put together the percentage of ‘always’ and ‘sometime’ for each gender,
considerably the females are more likely to recycle (95%) than males (90%). Based
on the result the research hypothesis is disproven.

Chart (5) above shows that recycling considered to be not expensive as a process.
The chart shows that (90%) of males and (85%) of females in their vision on
recycling process it is not expensive to do. The respondent answered this question
based on his/her background on recycling process.

In the previous chart we saw that the cost of recycling is not expensive, on
condition that the people are collaborated, otherwise it will be expensive. Chart (6)
above shows that the cost to manufacture new products using the recycled
materials is lower than using new raw materials.
 According to the chart (90%) of males and (85%) of females assumed that the cost
to be lower than the other alternatives of recycled materials. However the cost to re-
manufacture the old products related to the expenses of recycling process.

Many countries try to aware the people on recycling and reusing advantages. Chart
(7) above shows that (95%) of males and (80%) of females confirmed that their
home country government has kind of awareness campaigns. Fractionally (25%) of
them are not sure of that.

As a result recycling and reusing is supported by the governments around the

world, by providing some campaigns or advertisement on recycling benefits.

There are many materials to be useful if recycled, such as glass, paper, plastic etc.
Chart (8) above show some of those materials and which of them is more preferable
to be recycled to the respondents. The result displayed considerably that (75%) of
respondents preferred the plastic products to be recycled, the next materials are
paper (67%), glass (30%) and the in the last places are metals products (15%) and
electronics (12%).
Probably the plastic products are more common used in our daily life rather than
the others, metal and electronics are less preferable because it could last for long
time. “The most common materials recycled are plastics, paper, glass,
metal, concrete/bricks/asphalt, garden wastes and wood”. (Department of
environment, water, heritage and art, 2010)

Recycling sign looks familiar to the respondents as a worldwide symbol placed on

many products. Chart (9) above shows that the majority of males (85%) and females
(90%) know the meaning of the sign. Whereas (25%) of them do not know what
does it mean.
According to the result quite many people know the standard meaning of the sign.
”The recycling symbol means one of two things - either the product is
made of recycled material, or the item can be recycled”. (Department of
environment, water, heritage and art, 2010)

As many people know the meaning of recycling symbol, but did they know how
recycling process works. Chart (10) above shows that (60%) of both genders know
how the process work, significantly more than half of each gender just know ‘a little’
on the process.

In general the majority have some background on the recycling process. “Recycling
is a series of steps that takes a used material and processes,
remanufactures, and sells it as a new product” (Massouri’s department of
natural resources, 2010)

Summarising the findings collated from the charts. Many people considering the
global warming as worldwide issue threaten the life on the earth. One of many
solutions to prevent increase this problem is recycling and reusing, which is
concerned by both genders to reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases,
decrease the amount of waste we produce in our life. The cost to remanufacture the
old products is lower than using new raw materials and related to the expenses of
recycling process. Plastic products are more common used in our daily life so it is
more preferable to be recycled than the other materials. Many people know much
on recycling such as they know how the process works, the meaning of the symbol.

Discussion:

The aim of this research is to prove the hypothesis that among the international
students males are more likely to recycle and reuse than females in their daily life.
We can see from the results that women are more likely to recycle than the men, In
the 8 charts above in some areas both genders are somewhat similar in percentage,
even so when you look at the actual results as it is, in most of the results shows that
females are more acknowledged than males on recycling. In the first question
females are more concerned about global warming, considered it as problem facing
the whole world and threaten the life on earth.

Everybody knows that one of the global warming reasons is greenhouse gases, such
as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. Those gases affect on the ozone
layer depletion, which it provide protection from the detrimental solar radiation.
Those gases are the results of manufacturing the products using new raw materials,
incineration, wastes and land filling. The problem in manufacturing process using
new raw materials need more stages, which it will increase the expenses and waste
more time to reach the final product. We can avoid some stages when we use the
recycled products instead of the raw materials. “Recycling allows to avoid the
pollution in all categories, since it avoid the consumption of raw
materials”. (Bovea, 2010)

These days many countries facing problem to find new places to the land fill the
wastes or incinerate them which it is already considered as problem, moreover
“Land filling the wastes is two ways for pollution, the first one is soil
pollution and after the decomposing the wastes it will produce methane
gas who will be absorbed by the soil, disperse to the air causing air
pollution, and contaminate the ground waters supplies”. (Hohnholt, 2002) So
it is obvious that recycling the recyclable products will minimize the amount of the
wastes we produce. We can ask our self do we recycle? This question was asked to
the respondents fortunately the results came positively to the environment, but
opposite my hypothesis, the females are more aware and support to environment
than the males in their daily life.

When it comes to the cost of recycling it depend on the country and people and
which material we want to recycle, some countries do not have the capabilities to
afford the requirement to recycle such as the high technology machines for
recycling, the labour to work in garbage to separate it. In contrast if it is developed
countries like China, India, Australia or America are able to afford it. Any of the
recyclable materials will be easy to use as raw materials to produce new products
and a result for that the raw materials are still conserved, “the fuel consumed
during the collection, transporting and sorting less than the consumed fuel
in manufacturing using new raw materials”. (Bovea, 2010) What materials can
be recycled will decrease the expenses to manufacture new products, might lead to
reduction in products prices, that will encourage the people to support it may reduce
the prices of the recycled products. Despite the fact that many products are easy to
recycle much of it are still thrown in rubbish bins and landfill.

This research shows that people around the world need more education and
guidance on recycling and reusing. The recommendations for the future researches
on this topic are to choose larger study sample from either local or international
people, specify the study on one preferable material, and determine if there is any
changes in behaviour or personal attitude on recycling and waste minimisation to
follow the legislation in foreign countries.

References:

1. Sally Morgan, (2009). Sustainable future. Waste, recycling and reuse.

http://books.google.com.au/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=M64YV5SgOm4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=waste+recycling+and
+reusing+report&ots=ctkA98QCs1&sig=p4mnczub3InrJcYR5Vv5-
65V6XY#v=onepage&q&f=false

2. Sarah Hohnholt, (2002). Tri-m waste treaty project: A discussion paper.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-
bin/sinodisp/au/journals/MurUEJL/2002/4.html?
stem=0&synonyms=0&query=^waste
 3. Missouri’s department of natural resources, (2010). Solid waste management
program.
http://www.dnr.mo.gov/env/swmp/pubs-reports/threers.htm

4. Department of the environment, water, heritage and arts, (2010). National

waste policy report.
http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/publications/pubs/fs
-national-waste-report-2010.pdf

5. M.D. Bovea , V. Ibáñez-Forés, A. Gallardo, F.J. Colomer-Mendoza.

Environmental assessment of alternative municipal solid waste management
strategies. A Spanish case study. Waste Management (2010)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science

Table (1)

G
ender Male Female

Question
AGE 18-21 22-25 26-30 18-21 22-25 26-30
over30 over 30

15% 20% 55% 15% 20% 55%

10% 10%

Does the issue of YES NO YES NO

global warming
concern you? 90% 10% 100% ----

Do you think that YES NO YES NO

recycling will reduce
the emission of 90% 10% 95% 5%
greenhouse gases?

Do you think that YES NO YES NO

recycling will reduce
the risk of pollution 95% 5% 95% 5%
from land filling?

How often do you Always Sometimes Never Always Sometimes Never

recycle?
40% 50% 10% 50% 45% 5%

Do you think that EXPENSIVE NOT EXPENSIVE NOT

recycling and EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVE
reusing is expensive
to do? 10% 90% 15% 85%

Do you think YES NO YES NO

recycling helps
reduce the cost to 90% 10% 85% 15%
manufacture goods?

Does your home YES NO YES NO

country have any
government 95% 5% 80% 20%
awareness
campaigns on
recycling and
reusing?

Which of these Glass Plastic Paper Glass Plastic Paper

things you prefer to Electronics Metal Electronics Metal
recycle?
15% 40% 35% 5% 15% 35% 32% 8%
5% 10%

Do this sign mean YES NO YES NO

anything to you?
85% 15% 90% 10%

Do you know how YES A LITTLE YES A LITTLE

the recycling
process works? NO NO

30% 65% 5% 30% 60% 10%

International Students Questionnaire

“Recycling and Reusing”

• Age: 18-21 22-25 26-30

Over 30
• Gender: Male Female
• Nationality : ____________________

1. Does the issue of global warming concern you?

Yes No
2. Do you think that recycling will reduce the emission of
greenhouse gases?
Yes No
3. Do you think that recycling will decrease the risk of
pollution from land filling?
Yes No
4. How often do you recycle?
Always Sometimes

Never

5. Do you think that recycling and reusing is expensive

to do?
Expensive Not Expensive

6. Do you think recycling helps reduce the cost of

manufactured goods?
 Yes No

7. Does your home country have any government

awareness campaigns on recycling or reusing?
Yes No

8.Which of these things you prefer to recycle?(tick two)

Glass Plastic Paper Electronics
Metal
0

9. When you see this sign does it mean anything to

you?
Yes No

10. Do you know how the recycling process works?

Yes a Little No