Identification of Sociological Determinants of Waste Prevention and Design of Target Group-specific Communication

The survey provides an insight into people´s social practices in dealing with household waste and their knowledge and opinions on the topic of waste. In addition, waste prevention practices in private households were investigated. The online survey of 1,310 people took place between May and July 2018 and was conducted by Kantar Emnid. The sample comprised internet users in Germany aged 18 to 65 and was drawn from Kantar´s own online panel using a quota system. The selected quotas referred to the social characteristics age, gender, monthly net household income, federal state and highest level of education and were adjusted in such a way that the distribution of these characteristics in the sample largely corresponded to the proportions in the population. In addition, the sample was weighted with regard to the characteristics gender, age, federal state, education and income in order to bring the composition of the sample on which the evaluation is based even closer to the representative distributions.
The focus of the survey was on the fields of action and need: Food and packaging, clothing and shoes, toys, furniture, multimedia devices, mobile phones/smartphones, household appliances and tools/appliances. With regard to waste prevention, the thematic focus of this study was particularly on the following everyday practices, which focus on the one hand on the household level and on the other hand on the person level:
- Purchasing frequencies and duration of use of different products and product groups,
- Responsibilities in the household and living environment,
- Dealing with packaging or dispensing with packaging,
- Planning when shopping and handling food,
- Repair of everyday objects,
- Second-hand purchase of everyday objects,
- Borrowing and sharing appliances and tools.<br>1. Everyday life and household organisation: frequency of purchasing the following products: pre-packaged fruit and vegetables, non-packaged fruit and vegetables, other non-packaged food, frozen or ready meals, pre-packaged meat, cold cuts or cheese from the self-service shelf; frequency of using plastic and paper bags when purchasing non-packaged fruit and vegetables; reasons for purchasing pre-packaged fruit and vegetables; drinking water consumption: frequency of purchasing water in reusable bottles or in disposable bottles with a deposit, drink water from the tap; shopping behaviour (prepare shopping list, buy carrier bags in the shop, use reusable bags when shopping); disposal of reusable bottles with a deposit, drink water from the tap. (make a shopping list, buy carrier bags at the shop, use reusable bags when shopping); disposal or reuse of carrier bags purchased; frequency of use of delivery services and coffee to go cups.

2. Food and food waste: Meal preparation (no leftovers when cooking if possible, reheating leftovers for another meal); reasons for throwing away food;

3. Shopping behaviour: buy consumables from recycled materials, buy refill packs, find out about spare parts or their repairability before buying multimedia devices, order clothes, multi-media devices and/or furniture from online mail-order companies; replacement frequency of mobile phone or smartphone; reason for replacing mobile phone or (when it is broken, I regularly buy a new one through my mobile phone contract); frequency of buying outerwear; three most important criteria when buying clothes; agreement with statements about own clothes (own many clothes that I have never or only very rarely worn, usually buy new clothes only when old clothes are broken or no longer fit); Frequency of buying second-hand goods instead of new products in clothing, multimedia devices, toys, furniture, tools, small household appliances and small household appliances; reasons for buying second-hand goods.

4. Household and household appliances: Repairing and borrowing behaviour (joint purchase/borrowing of infrequently used appliances and tools, selling or giving away everyday items that are no longer needed, carrying out minor repairs on clothes myself, repairing everyday items myself or getting help from household members and friends); reasons for not borrowing appliances and tools; using repair services for various everyday items (clothes, shoes, furniture, large household appliances, small household appliances, multimedia appliances); reasons for not repairing or using repair services.

5. Household, waste and food: disposal behaviour: Opinion on various statements (annoyed that plastic bags now cost money, guilty conscience when throwing away food, discuss in the household whether food is thrown away, wish for more information on repairing everyday items, support or use of local repair initiatives (e.g. Repair Cafés), recycling or reusing old clothes is important, litter lying around on the street and by the wayside upsets me, separate the aluminium lid before disposing of yoghurt pots); opinion on the waste situation in Germany and worldwide (the media exaggerate the issue of plastic waste in the sea, in an affluent society it is normal that more waste is produced than in the past, waste avoidance in Germany is the task of politics, companies (manufacturing and trade) must ensure less packaging waste, waste avoidance is just a fashion trend, discussions about waste are incomprehensible, no problems with waste in Germany due to the technically high level of waste recycling plants, I am glad that my waste is collected regularly, otherwise I don´t bother about it any further); dealing with household waste: Frequency of separation behaviour for the following household waste: Organic waste, packaging, paper, newspapers, cardboard boxes, glass, textiles, batteries, medicines, paints, varnishes, waste electrical and electronic equipment and energy-saving light bulbs; reasons for not separating household waste; household and living environment: responsibilities in the household for the following tasks: Buying groceries, buying multimedia devices, repairing household items, preparing meals, disposing of waste; type of housing (housing status); contact with neighbourhood; options for waste separation on the property or at the place of residence (residual waste bin, organic waste bin, paper bin, packaging bin, recycling bin, glass bin).

Demography: age; sex; highest level of education; household size and composition; questions to determine the social milieu; occupation; occupational status of current or former occupation; migration background of the respondent or parents; membership in an environmental association; support of associations and campaigns in the environmental field; net household income.

Additionally coded were: ID; wave (core survey, follow-up survey); federal state; weighting factor.