A) Aluminium cans
B) Plastic
C) Paper
D) Glass bottles’
The reason for asking this question is because, I thought it would be useful if I was able to ask the state of rubbish in a family, it is targeted to the family for me to be able to find out if a family as a whole takes recycling seriously.
My second question was ‘what type of bags does your family use for shopping?
A) Basket
B) Re-usable plastic bags
C) Trolley
D) New plastic (Collected at the check-out)’
I used this question to be able to find out, if people think about using baskets or re-usable plastic bags, instead of using plastic bags that they can just throw away and not be able to use again. Baskets are more useful so they can re-use it as much as they want without wasting plastic bags.
My third question was ‘ Does your household use a lot of paper and how much of that is recycled?’
A) All of it is recycled
B) Half of it is recycled
C) Quarter of it is recycled
D) I don’t bother’
I used this question to find out if people do take the environment and letter issue seriously and to find out if they are doing something to reduce the amount of waste produced every year. The amount of paper recycled I thought would be a good idea to start with.
My fourth question was ‘What type of cloth do you use?
A) Reusable
B) Disposal’
The reason for asking this question is because I wanted to find out whether the person helps to reduce the waste problem by using re-usable cloths instead of disposable ones, as disposable ones could increase the amount of rubbish by throwing it away with one use.
My fifth question was ‘When you eat out, do you?
A) Throw it in the bin afterwards
B) Don’t bother to put it away
C) Throw it on the floor’
I asked this question to be able to determine a person’s attitude towards litter, and to find out if they have any respect for the environment. I used this question to see if people even bother with the problem of the rising amount of rubbish in the UK, and if any, are doing something about it instead of joining the problem.
My sixth question was ‘Are you aware of the fact that in 5-7 years time, land for waste to be dumped in will run out?
A) Yes
B) No’
I asked this question to find out the awareness of people towards the problems that we are faced with if littering does not stop. I want to find out if people bother to know any knowledge of the problems in the present which is space left for dumped litter, and problems we might face in the future.
My seventh question was ‘do you think that people should take action now to save the Earth from these environmental issues’
A) Yes
B) No’
I asked this question to be able to find out about what actions needed to be taken now to save the Earth then later. I wanted to see if a certain person really feels that litter should stop now than later when it is too late. I wanted to see if people feel strongly about stopping the increase of litter.
My eight question was ‘Does your family separate plastic, tin cans etc, from each other?
A) Yes
B) No’
I asked this question to be able to find out if people make the effort to separate different materials from each to recycle, instead of giving materials that is mixed with others as it is easier to recycle things in order. This question, in my point of view determines a person’s effort towards recycling.
My ninth question was ‘Do you ever set examples to your friends and family to recycle or throw it in the bins not on the floor?’
A) Yes
B) No’
I asked this question for the same reasons as my reason for question 8. In my opinion this determines the effort people make to help with the reduction of waste, and their respect for the environment.
My tenth question was ‘would you ever consider taking a job involving saving the environment from pollution or other over-flowing waste?’
I asked this question to see if people are so interested in saving the environment that they have pride to say they are involved in saving the environment. Also to see if people are so worried about this issue that they want to be able to do something that can make a difference.
Review of Pilot Questionnaire
The good points about my questionnaire are that, most of my questions worked well because most of the questions related to my hypothesis. My questions included how much each students recycle out of their family waste. It also includes questions which relate to how much energy a student waste I their household. For example light energy or electrical energy from household appliances.
The bad points about my pilot questionnaire include the fact that, although most of my questions relate to my hypothesis, some of them do not. There are some questions that relate to different subjects such as pollution. I can make these questions better by adding more open questions. This way, people could answer the questions themselves (in their own words), instead of giving them a list of choices to choose from, which most of my questions are. Also they must relate to my hypothesis I have written.
Most of my questions does relate to my hypothesis, however, some of my questions do not. An example of these questions is, “In what way do you travel at a short distance?” This does not relate to recycling but it relates to the pollution a person can make if, only at a short distance, they travel by car which is one of the reasons for the increase of pollution. I will not use this question because it will not be useful to me, as this does not relate to my hypothesis. Also, my coursework will not make sense if my questions and hypothesis does not match or relate.
Examples of questions which relates to my hypothesis are:
“Does your family collect any of the following for recycling?”
This relates to recycling because, it asks respondents if they recycle and make the effort in saving the earths environment, by collecting paper to make Britain a better and cleaner place.
“Does your household use a lot of paper; is less than a quarter of that waste recycled?”
This relates to recycling because, it questions the respondent about how much household waste they recycle, either more or less than a quarter. This question can be used to see if a student in Eastlea Community School is a person who is a ‘recycling freak,’ or a student who does not care at all about the status of the world relating to the environment.
My plan for my main questionnaire is to add more open questions, so there are a variety of different questions for the respondent to answer. Here are some of the examples of my added questions:
“Do you bother to find recycling bins when you are throwing something away?”
a) No
b) Yes
If no, why not, please write down you reason
_____________________________________________________________________
I am going to use this question because, it test the respondent on how much they care about the environment, that they bother to find a bin instead of throwing waste on the floor.
“How important do you think recycling is?”
Write your answer here please___________________________________________
I will use this question because, it is an open question, which is the type of question I need for my questionnaire, and so it has a variety of open and closed questions. This way, the respondent can answer the question in his or her own words and the interviewer can see how the person really feels about recycling.
For my questionnaire, I have decided that I should type up the questions and in another page create a table that will have the answers of all the respondents I will ask. My reason for this is to save up paper and not print a lot of paper for all the respondents. I strongly believe that recycling is important and this method can be a way of saving paper.
Choice of Sample
To complete my questionnaire, I decided to ask people outside of the school to find out if not only did the Eastlea School have an issue with recycling waste, but also the public outside of the school. I also asked my family, because I wanted to find out whether my family supports recycling or not, and if they bother to recycle and put rubbish in the bins instead of the floors. I think with the combination of asking a large amount of people in the public and a single family itself, I can find out if as the people of the United Kingdom we are the one who is causing the reduction of litter.
Results Table
My pilot questionnaire results, when placed in a table, gave the following results:
Findings of Questionnaire
For my first question, my results table show that 80% of people do collect Aluminium, Plastic and Glass. However 20% do not collect any of the materials to recycle.
My second question, the table shows that 35% of people use equipment such as baskets and trolleys so that they don’t have to waste materials. On the other hand, most people (65%) use plastics given at the check out. This means that more plastic bags are wasted.
My results table shows that for question three, only 35% of people recycle every waste they produce whilst 20% recycle half and a disgusting 45% of people do not recycle anything at all, which explains the growing amount of litter.
My results table for question four shows that 60% use re-usable towels and cloths. However 40% of the people surveyed used disposals. This adds to our waste problems, as it increases it.
Question five’s results table shows that only 25% of people have the consideration to throw litter away after eating. The results also reveals that an appalling 50% don’t throw rubbish, but the most disappointing result is that another 25% throw it on the floor causing major litter problems and problems with insects or rats.
Question 6 results table show that, 20% of people surveyed did not have no knowledge in the alarming rate, at which dump lands are running out. 80% knew of this news, but still there is growth in rubbish.
My results table for question 7, tells us that 100% of the people surveyed, did think that action needed to be taken to save our environment. This is surprising news, as previous results show lack of care for this recycling.
Question 8 was a question to test not only the interest of individuals towards the issue of recycle, but also as a family group. The result table shows that there are about 90% of families that don’t bother to separate different materials from each other to recycle. Only a disappointing 10% of families show interest in recycling
Question 9 results show that, 30% of people set examples to throw and recycle litter. This is a big help to the environment. On the other hand, more than half of the people do nothing to help the environment.
Finally, question 10 results table tells us that another surprising 100% of people want to take on a job to help with the environment. This means that everyone that had been surveyed had an interest in the issue and being a part of it.
Questionnaire Conclusions
The finding of my questionnaire is that my hypothesis was correct. Most of the results show me that students do not care or know anything about recycling. Results such as question five, “only 25% of people have the consideration to throw litter away after eating. The results also reveal that an appalling 50% don’t throw rubbish, but the most disappointing result is that another 25% throw it on the floor causing major litter problems and problems with insects or rats.” Completely support my hypothesis. However, question 7,“tells us that 100% of the people surveyed, and did think that action needed to be taken to save our environment. This is surprising news, as previous results show lack of care for this recycling.” This did not support my hypothesis. This is because the results suggested that each one did care enough about the environment to agree that everyone should take action, to save the world. This proved my hypothesis, in this are to be wrong.
Review of Questionnaire
My questionnaire worked, as it gave me all the information I needed. The questionnaire provided me with information and results that have backed up my hypothesis. The questionnaire allowed me to investigate how many people do know how to recycle and if they even bothered. However, there is room for improvement in my questionnaires. For example, most of my questions were closed questions. I think I need to add more open questions, to allow the people to really answer the questions with their own thought. Open questions would not only benefit the people but also me as the surveyor, as I can get more detailed answers to my questions.
Structured Interviews
Derek Mitchell is one of the site supervisors of this school. Derek’s role is to take care of the school litter and vandalism. He tries to clear the entire Eastlea School from waste and fixes things that had been damaged by students in the school. Derek, the site supervisor, mentioned that there was more money spent on rubbish then the education of the students. Vandalism and too much litter, is one of the schools main priorities. Money is critical for more computers and books but are spent on litter bins that had been damaged. One bin alone costs up to £90-£110 each. Machines are also being bought to take care of the amount of rubbish in Eastlea and one of these machines cost up to £22,000. No matter what the Principle, site supervisors and teachers do, it is no match for the amount of waste being caused by a large percentage of students. Derek informed us that too much litter being thrown on the ground has raised the problem of bacteria and large living things which include rats. Even a family of foxes have been located going around the school site, looking for food.
During the class discussion, many people had asked questions and were answered by Derek Mitchell. Here are some examples:
Q-“Why are there no recycling bins in school?”
A-“What’s the point of having them, if even the normal bins were not being used? Saint Angela’s School bins are emptied daily, but our school only once a week. This is the case because more litter are thrown in the floor then in the bins in Eastlea School.”
Q- “Approximately, how many bins are there in Eastlea Community School?”
A-“Forty and hardly any of them are being used. There is a joke us supervisors say to cheer ourselves up, ‘if the floor is full, please use the bins.”
This reply with the joke, tells us that the floor is used as a bin, instead of the bins themselves. Compared to the litter on the floor and inside the bin, the floor is packed with ten times more litter than litter in the bins. His exact word to this whole situation was “APAULING!”
The students asked Mr Mitchell questions on how this litter problem can be stopped. His reply all came down to one answer which was “the only way to stop this problem, was not only the effort of the Principle, site supervisors and the teachers, but also the effort of us, the students.” He said that everyone should just make the effort to put their rubbish in the bins, and if they see anyone littering, they should encourage them to decrease their littering and increase their effort to reduce the amount of rubbish.
He thinks that the school should also create some rules to prevent the increase of waste. One of these ways was to pick one class everyday to help pick up the rubbish. This way, he thinks that the students can realise what they are causing and hopefully think twice about littering. If this will change people’s attitudes towards this problem, it may lead to less rubbish in the school, less money spent on litter picking machines and more money on books, computers and school equipments.
Until now, the problem still stands and the estimated money wasted on machines is
£30,000(only quarter of the money actually spent.) If we all help, we can have all that money for the equipment we need. Less litter, vandalism then there would be more books, computers and new classes. This relates to my hypothesis, because it says that Eastlea School students do not know how to recycle, and this proves that not only does the students have no clue about how to recycle, but does not even have the common sense to put the litter in the bin!
Interview Conclusions
The findings of my interviews are that the people I have interviewed agree with my opinion about the school and society relating to the issue of recycling. My hypothesis states that students from Eastlea School and the rest of the society, do not know how to recycle or don’t even bother. Derek Mitchell, the site supervisor, has a very strong argument about the state of rubbish at Eastlea. He argues that the pupils in the school do not bother to clear up their own mess. He has evidence that the school is over populated with rubbish, and this evidence is that the principle has bought a machine to clean rubbish when at other schools; a machine is not needed as there is not much rubbish produced in the school. Coming back to my hypothesis, I stated students do not know how to recycle, let alone tidy up their own mess. He supports the fact that Eastlea students lack the respect for the environment and does not know how to recycle.
Secondary Sources
To help me with my study, I used different types of secondary sources. Examples of these sources are, an article called ‘A throw away society’ (The cross-curricular for PSE). Foster J wrote the article and was published in the year 1992 by Collins Educational. Another secondary source that I have is called ‘Alternatives’, it was written by Dady Bernard, J. It is a book extract from the Environmental Issues book. This book was published in London by Copyright Licensing Agency. The third source that I got was an article called ‘Why do we recycle?’ I got this article from …it did not have any information on who wrote the article. My fourth source is the second source which I got from a website. This Newspaper article is called ‘Thames litter is a disgrace.’ I found this article on a website called . This article was by ‘The Londoner’.
Evaluation of Secondary Sources
The reason why I used the article ‘A throwaway society’ is because, it is a reliable source of information. The article states the true facts of how many, as a percentage, of us is not recycling in one household. It mentions other alternatives, such as building incinerators to reduce the percentage of litter and un-recycled materials around UK. The article contains the results of increasing of litter and the reduction of recycling, this can be useful to use when I start my coursework. There are however, bad things about the article. Although it mentions the results of littering, it does not explain in detail, as to how those results would affect the society. This source I believe, is a trust worthy information and shows the main picture of the cause of litter. This source relays on the facts not the viewpoint of one person or a limited number of people.
However, in the book extract ‘Alternatives’, it mentions the choices that people should make to enable the environment to be a better place. It states information on how we can improve our pollution and littering. One of the examples stated was to grow foods using biological methods rather than chemical. It includes information on government expenses in order to keep the society stable. Although it is useful, it has not included as much information as ‘A throwaway society’ article. It does not mention the reasons why we should recycle and what recycling does for us. It does not mention the after results of littering and exact data on how many people litter to be more precise. I believe that that this piece of document is trust worthy and can help me in some extent. However, I think it does not show the whole picture. This is because as said above, it needs more information for me to be able to see the whole picture of recycling.
On the other hand, the article ‘Why do we recycle’ is another article which I have used for my secondary source. This is about the increase of litter from the 1960’s to the present time. It says that, each household produces twenty-seven million tonnes of rubbish. It includes the reasons for rubbish increasing such as new packaging materials and technology are being developed. It contains the government’s problems dealing with rubbish. It is a good article, it is quiet useful and will help me in some extent, I believe it is a trust worthy piece of research. On the other hand, again it does not show me the whole picture. It does not state the actions taken by the government and the results, but all in all it is reliable enough to be used in my coursework.
Finally, the newspapers article ‘Thames litter is a disgrace’. This article includes letters to Ken Livingstone about how disgraced Phillip Smith is on what he sees lurking in Thames. RUBBISH! This article includes the next step Ken Livingstone will take to avoid litter; it says that within five to seven years, Britain will run out of space to bury its rubbish. I think this article is a reliable source, this is because it contains other peoples thoughts about Britain’s rubbish and what actions the mayor is taking. This article shows to be a trustworthy piece of information and will be a vital source for my research. It helps me to a great extent; I can use this article to describe how people feel, besides my view and the facts about litter.
Findings of Secondary Sources
The secondary sources I used agreed with my hypothesis. There were comments in the article ‘Thames litter is a disgrace’ by Ken Livingston that totally agrees with my hypothesis, as Ken also feels that the society is lacking respect for the environment. He was disgraced by the amount he saw in the Thames and also in the streets. This resulted to Ken writing to the newspapers about his strong feelings of rubbish. I think that Ken Livingston is the strongest argument against littering as he describes well in detail, as how much he is disappointed with the society about the litter issue. He has given many reasons why we should stop littering; one is that the litter space in the UK will soon be running out. He does not only express his thoughts but refers to the facts. There was also an article called ‘A throwaway society’. The article states the true facts of how many, as a percentage, of us is not recycling in one household. The facts mentioned relates accurately with my hypothesis.
Conclusion
During writing this coursework, I have come to a conclusion. As a result of my investigation, I still agree with my hypothesis ‘Most people/students in Eastlea Community School does not recycle waste, some does not know how to recycle waste.’ This leads me to think that Eastlea students not only have no idea of how to recycle, but also don’t know how to put their waste in the bin. In one of my interviews, I interviewed a site supervisor in Eastlea school (Derek Mitchell.) As a site supervisor, he knows the biggest problem of the school…LITTER! He told the class that the floors were being used as the bins. He added that Eastlea students do not bother to put their rubbish in the bins provided. This is exactly relating to hypothesis.
In my research, I came across books and articles that stated that, there are many appalling’consequences of too much litter in this country. England has the biggest problem of litter in the whole of Europe. This again relates to hypothesis, but because of this information, I know that not only does the students have no idea of how to recycle, but most of the people in England.
Through out this investigation and research, my results have proven my hypothesis is completely true. My investigations and results of my investigations, backs up that my hypothesis is accurate. Both the interviews and information, tells me that human beings lacks in the respect of the environment.
Appendices
Interview notes and questionnaires
Bibliography
FOSTER, J (1992) Issue 1, the cross- curricular course for PSE, London, Collins Educational.
DADY BERNARD, J (1989), Environmental issues, London, Copyright Licensing Agency.
