Do children take the recycling message home from school?

摘要

A schools waste education programme was undertaken to try to change 7-11 year old children's kerbside recycling behaviour at home. The schools waste education programme used incentives to encourage pupils to recycle. The structure of the schools waste education programme is outlined and the methodology to monitor the trials effectiveness explained. To summarise, all pupils aged 7-11 in six primary schools were targeted. All the households of pupils had a weekly kerbside recycling collection in the case study authority. The purpose of the experiments was to quantify any change after the school waste education programme in waste diversion from the households with subjected children. Hard indicators measured change in the kerbside recycling behaviour at pupil homes. All results were compared to pupils of a control school that did not receive the schools waste education programme. The study found that children aged 7-11 subject to the waste education programme do take the recycling message home and change their households kerbside recycling behaviour. The households of pupils subjected to the waste education programme increased intended participation rates and put out less contaminants. However, the homes of pupils subjected to the waste education programme did not achieve a significant increase in the diversion of recyclate.