Family survey results

Introduction

Generating, storing and producing waste is a crucial and essential issue in Hungary and in other countries. People are facing a bigger and bigger global crisis due to the growth of the world’s population. One of the solutions is to raise awareness to “green lifestyles” among the younger generation. It is not easy, since we need a radical change of our attitude to life, which is, unfortunately, still unknown to many of us.

The aim of the family survey

We should start raising awareness at school at a young age, so as part of the project, we wanted to survey the actual state of it to see what actions we need to take and decide how to reach our goals. We asked 215 students to fill in a 12-question survey about their family’s attitude to eco-friendly shopping and waste management. There were questions about their shopping habits (writing a shopping list in advance), and whether they compost at home. They had the same options to answer each question: always, often, rarely, never and no opportunity. By differentiating between the last two options, we can even see their willingness, too, which is important to see at the start of a project.

The results

As mentioned before, 215 students volunteered to fill in the questionnaire. About half of the families always write a shopping list and they take shopping bags with themselves. The rest of the families often do the same. Fortunately, only a few families do not act accordingly.

Most of the families (around 80%) sort paper, plastic and metal at home, but less families collect green and organic trash separately. Composting is even less popular: about 30% of the families do not do it at all. However, we can see their willingness: around 1/5 of the families explain that they do not do it because they lack the possibility to do so. They might lack the possibility due to the possibilities in the area where they live (block of flats).

The proper collection and management of hazardous waste is essential, although about 10% of the families do not even care about it.

It is interesting that the families are not really interested in recycled or reusable products, and they are not likely to share or rent things.

Conclusion

We can say that most of the families aspire to a greener and eco-friendly lifestyle. There are gaps between the different areas, so it gives us the opportunity to aim at bringing down these gaps.