SITA UK/NUS report - Lifting the Lid: Student Attitudes and Behaviours towards Recycling and Waste

Tags: waste | carbon | recycling | student | campus | NUS | practice | barriers | attitude

Understanding the behaviour and attitude of students towards recycling and waste is key to institutions that are looking to improve their environmental performance through less carbon-intensive disposal methods. Yet relatively little is known about how students feel about recycling and what affects their actions when it comes to disposing of waste.

The research for this report has focused on students in higher education, aiming to improve our understanding of student attitudes and behaviours to waste and recycling, what motivates them and what barriers they are facing when trying to recycle, and their experiences of recycling whilst at university.

To gather information in these areas an online survey was distributed and secured responses from 2,563 students. The research was promoted as a ‘campus lifestyle’ survey in order to counteract any bias and ensure the survey sample was reflective of the UK student population as whole.

The research for this report was commisioned from NUS on behalf of SITA UK.