Rhodes, RE, Beauchamp, MR, Conner, M et al. (3 more authors) (2014) Are mere instructions enough? Evaluation of four types of messaging on community depot recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 90. pp. 1-8. ISSN 0921-3449
Abstract
Curbside recycling efforts have made an important contribution to waste containment, but many communities have specific limitations on what products can be recycled within their community bins (e.g., no cartons, styrofoam, soft plastics) and must rely on depots for recycling these other items. These specialty depots typically take the form of local community or large central municipal sites. The purpose of this randomized trial was to examine messages targeting (1) awareness/instructions, (2) utility, (3) affect, and (4) planning upon community and central depot recycling across eight weeks. One hundred and seventy-six community-dwelling residents between the ages of 18–65 years who self-identified as having the potential to improve their depot recycling activities completed baseline recycling measures and then were randomly assigned to one of the four messaging conditions. One hundred and forty-four of these participants subsequently answered follow-up recycling behavior measures four and eight weeks later. Intention to treat analyses showed that depot recycling increased significantly from baseline to four weeks. The effect waned for community recycling while holding for municipal depot recycling at eight weeks. Distance to recycling depot (closer proximity resulted in greater community recycling), access to a car (low access resulted in greater community recycling), and baseline recycling behavior (no prior recycling resulted in greater behavior change) all acted as significant moderators of the effect. There was no time by group interaction among conditions. The findings support the use of basic instructions – as a minimum – for promoting depot recycling efforts and provide evidence that local community depots, in conjunction with municipal depots, are important to increasing recycling behavior.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 Elsevier B.V. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Persuasive communication; Affective messaging; Cognitive messaging; Planning messaging; Messaging strategies |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2016 11:52 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2018 16:23 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.04.008 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.resconrec.2014.04.008 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97152 |