Jurnal Penyelidikan Teknokrat II, Jld. 23 (Dis) ISSN 1511 5828
E-ISSN-2637-1065
Full Paper
READINESS FOR A RECYCLING CULTURE – THE 3R PROGRAMME
Tan Mun Wai1* , Lee Kim Hong2 , Lim Woon Hua3, , Ling Piek Ying4 , Dayang Bibah Awang Tuah5
12345 Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Pendidikan
Teknik, 71760, Bandar Enstek, Negeri Sembilan
*Corresponding author:
Article history Received:
13 July 2022 Received in revised form:
30 September 2022 Accepted:
4 October 2022 Published online:
7 October 2022
ABSTRACT :This study is a descriptive study that seeks to find out the readiness of the students on an IPG campus for a recycling culture and ways to improve an existing recycling programme named 3R. Readiness in this study relates to interest in sustainable activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R programme. Data was collected from a survey, the registration form and the recycle-redeem form for the 3R programme. The sample for the survey was a voluntary response sample, consisting of 171 respondents or 60.9 % of the population consisting of students of the PPISMP programme June 2020 intake. The registration and recycle-redeem form provides data for the population.
The result from the survey showed that at least 84.8% of 60.9% of the population or at least 51.6% of the population are interested in sustainable activities, aware, receptive and willing to participate in the 3R programme compared to only 17.4% of the population from the registration form who had registered for the 3R programme. There is great potential to increase participation with improvements that include continuous engagement through activities like talks, competitions and projects that are student-led by forming a recycling club with a website, increasing items for recycling that reflects the students' waste, increasing convenience by putting more recycling bins in hostels and have more attractive redeem points and items.
Keywords: Readiness, participation, recycling, culture, programme
ABSTRAK:Kajian ini merupakan kajian deskriptif yang bertujuan untuk menilai kesediaan pelajar di sebuah kampus IPG terhadap budaya kitar semula dan cara-cara menambah baik program kitar semula sedia ada yang dinamakan 3R. Kesediaan dalam kajian ini berkaitan dengan minat dalam aktiviti lestari, kesedaran, penerimaan dan kesediaan untuk menyertai program 3R. Data dikumpul daripada tinjauan, borang pendaftaran dan borang kitar semula- tebus untuk program 3R. Sampel kajian adalah sampel respons sukarela, terdiri daripada 171 responden atau 60.9% daripada populasi yang terdiri daripada pelajar program PPISMP Ambilan Jun 2020. Borang pendaftaran dan kitar semula-tebus menyediakan data untuk populasi. Hasil kajian daripada tinjauan menunjukkan sekurang-kurangnya 84.8% daripada 60.9% populasi atau sekurang-kurangnya 51.6% populasi berminat dengan aktiviti lestari, sedar, reseptif dan bersedia untuk menyertai program 3R berbanding hanya 17.4% pelajar yang telah berdaftar dalam program 3R daripada borang pendaftaran. Terdapat potensi besar
untuk meningkatkan penyertaan dengan penambahbaikan yang merangkumi penglibatan berterusan melalui aktiviti seperti ceramah, pertandingan dan projek yang diterajui pelajar dengan membentuk kelab kitar semula dengan laman web, meningkatkan barangan untuk kitar semula yang mencerminkan sisa pelajar, meningkatkan kemudahan dengan meletakkan lebih banyak tong kitar semula di asrama serta mengadakan point dan barangan tebusan yang lebih menarik.
Kata kunci: Kesediaan, penyertaan, kitar semula, budaya, program
INTRODUCTION
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2018, single-use plastics, which include grocery bags, containers and bottles, constitute the majority of plastic packaging. These plastics, which are designed for immediate disposal after use, are often discarded within the same year of production. Their increased use has contributed significantly to the increased generation of plastic waste.
Reuters (2020) in an article in the New Straits Times, reported that green group WWF, found from an analysis of Asia’s worst ocean polluters, shows Malaysians are the biggest individual consumers of plastic packaging and urged the government to limit single-use plastics and work with companies to fund a recycling push as most of these plastic wastes end up in landfills. As reported in The Star (“Less than 1%”, 2019), out of 3 million tonnes of waste, only 0.06% or 1,800 tonnes were recycled while the rest were sent to landfills.
Aluminium is another item that is recycled. Ahmad (2020) in her article states that aluminium cans are very common in our daily lives and are often consumed as drink containers and later thrown as garbage in bins or being littered on streets and open plots. The aluminium can is the world’s most recycled packaging container. They are 100% recyclable. Recycling aluminium saves millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases, energy, electricity and fuel for its transportation. Making aluminium cans from recycled materials requires less than 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium cans from bauxite.
Given that plastic waste is in need of recycling and aluminium cans a good candidate to recycle, there is a need to develop a culture of recycling among the students. Roundy (2016) states that culture is made up of customs, attitudes and beliefs that are unique to each group of people. Culture takes time to grow and is dynamic, and it can change and adapt to changing environments. Developing a culture of recycling would mean working on giving people a new attitude, belief and way of life. The question is how ready are our students to embrace a culture of recycling?
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
When the students finish their bottled mineral water and aluminium can drinks, they normally throw it into the nearest bin. Not very much thought is given to what will happen to these bottles and cans or how it will affect the environment at the end of the day. The number of mineral bottles thrown away increases during events when mineral bottles are given to participants.
When an event like sports day involves the whole campus, the number of mineral bottles thrown increases.
In view of the bottles being thrown away and most probably ending up in landfills, the Green Technology and Sustainability sub-committee in a IPG campus decided to come up with a programme that will help the students become more conscious of recycling instead of just throwing the bottles and cans into a normal bin.
The committee hoped to develop a culture of recycling where students will recycle not because there is a campaign or a programme but because they want to be involved in reducing waste ending up in landfills. There have been various recycling campaigns in the past. These were usually one-off programmes. When the programmes ended, the recycling ended as well. The committee wanted something longer term. It also want the programme to be on a more voluntary basis, a desire that comes from the students themselves and not imposed upon them. So, the invitation to join the programme is on a voluntary basis. At the same time, the committee wanted to provide some incentives for the students to participate in the programme.
The result was the recycle, redeem, reuse or 3R programme that will be long term, hopefully ongoing until it becomes a culture in this institute. The programme should evolve as the committee work with, hopefully, a growing number of students, more ideas and suggestions.
The 3R programme had three stages. The first stage was the preparation stage. The committee created a promotional video for the 3R programme and two Google forms. A google form for the registration and a recycle-redeem form with QR codes. The committee also put recycling bins at two places in the institute for the recycled items.The second stage was the promotional stage where a 20 minute briefing was given to the PPISMP Jun 2020 intake students to create awareness of the 3R programme. The third stage was the running of the programme where the students recycle, collect points and redeem items. The students first register and they were given a number to identify them when they recycle and redeem items.
They can recycle two items; mineral bottles and aluminium cans. The committee chose these two items to recycle for a start as they are easy to count for the students to get points to redeem items. The redeemed items were old items that could still be used, donated by lecturers and friends, plus a few items bought through cash donation from the lectures. This was the reuse part.
The programme started in September and ended in November when the students were called back home due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) arising from the spread of the Covid- 19 virus. Within those short three months, there was a slow but growing momentum but the break provided an opportunity for the committee to reflect and find out the readiness of the students for a recycling culture to develop.
Airiodion Global Services (2021), in their article, stated that a change readiness assessment is the process used to assess how ready and prepared a group is for change. The assessment looks at things like awareness, receptiveness, and capacity of the group for change.
Awareness is knowledge or perception of a situation that can help increase willingness to support change. Receptiveness refers to attitudes towards a particular programme and the capacity for change involves how much change is already taking place or has just taken place within the group, as well as the potential for future change. This research hopes to find out the students’ readiness in terms of interest in sustainability activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R programme, and the way forward for the 3R programme.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
This study seeks to find out the readiness of the students for a recycling culture on the campus through the 3R programme, in terms of interest in sustainable activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R programme. It also looks at the present involvement of the students and ways to improve the existing 3R programme.
RESEARCH QUESTION
This study seeks to find out the readiness of the students for a recycling culture on the campus through the 3R programme, in terms of interest in sustainable activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R programme. It also looks at the present involvement of the students and ways to improve the existing 3R programme.
There are six research questions related to interest in sustainability activities, awareness, receptiveness, willingness to participate, present participation as well as suggestions for improvement in the 3R programme. The research questions are as follows:
1. What is the level of interest in sustainability activities among the students?
2. What is the level of awareness of the 3R programme on the campus?
3. What is the level of receptiveness of the 3R programme?
4. What is the level of willingness to participate among the students in the 3R programme?
5. What is the present level of participation in the 3R programme?
6. What are the suggestions for improvement of the 3R programme?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Culture
A group’s culture comprises the values, behaviours and cumulative traits of the group. Factors that contribute to a group’s culture and value system include the group’s vision, norms, assumptions, beliefs, and leadership habits. By considering culture and value when conducting change readiness assessment, one can better predict how a group will react to the transformation, and plan accordingly to deal with such reactions.
Change readiness
A change readiness describes the state that a group is in, whether it is already changing, ready, not ready or not willing to change. A change readiness assessment analyses where a particular group is in, to increase success in creating change. For Airiodion Global Services (2021), they look at things like awareness, receptiveness, and capacity to change. According to Praxie.com (n.d.), the key elements that are gauged in Change Readiness Assessment are attitudes, resources and conditions. Attitudes refer to how dedicated and supportive those affected by the change are to it. Resources refer to any factor that will facilitate the change, such as money and time. Conditions are laws or policies that are needed to support and put the change into action.
Readiness and recyling behaviour
Recycling behaviours can be affected by many factors. One of them is information. In the review by Oke and Kruijsen (2016), they argued that adequate and specific recycling information should be provided before the implementation of a particular scheme in order to
create scheme awareness. It is also technically desirable to allow sufficient time for behavioural adjustment that could influence people’s level of preparedness. If the major reasons for not recycling are inconvenience, distance, and other waste-handling issues, giving the participants some valuable information prior to the commencement of a scheme would provide an opportunity to assess their status against the scheme’s demands. Participants would also be made aware of the facilities such as recycling centers and types of recycling schemes in their local jurisdiction. In order to enhance participation, performance feedback should also be provided at regular intervals during and after the scheme introduction, in order to sustain the relevance of recycling.
Pratarelli and Mainguy (2010), in their research on social pressure and recycling, suggests that facilitating waste collection for consumers further increases the likelihood of participation.
Moreover, sustaining such programs requires that environmental education programs for children—the adult consumers of the future—focus specifically on developing values and attitudes rather than the accumulation of dry facts about climate-change, habitat loss, etc.
Finally, although collectivist societies appear to have better success with community-wide recycling programs, there is considerable evidence to suggest that an individualist society like those seen in North America or Australia can be successful provided that sponsored recycling programs demonstrate they share some common values with consumers.
Recycling programmes
Recycling can prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, thereby reducing energy usage, air pollution and water pollution.
Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction. Recycable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries, and electronics.
Bavani (2021) reported in The Star that KL City Hall introduced a barter programme called 1Community, 1 Recycling (1C1R) in March 2021 to encourage residents from the low-income group to separate domestic waste and exchange it for food items. Residents could exchange waste like aluminium cans, paper, plastic and used cooking oil in return for points that could be accumulated and redeemed for sugar, flour, cooking oil and condensed milk. Each item came with a point value. For example, 1 kg of aluminium cans was worth 12 points and 1 kg of used cooking oil, 10 points. Residents could exchange 12 points for a packet of sugar, while for 10 points, they could get a tin of condensed milk. The programme has been well received and popular among the residences and DBKL are opening two more kiosks.
METHODOLOGY
This study is a descriptive study with quantitive and qualitative data from a survey and registration and recycle-redeem forms. The quantitative data was analysed using numbers and percentages. Qualitative data was analysed to identify patterns and themes that help answer the research questions, which are divided into 6 sections which relate to:
1. Interest in sustainability activities among the students 2. Awareness of the 3R programme on campus
3. Receptiveness of the 3R programme
4. Willingness to participate in the 3R programme 5. Present involvement in the 3R programme
6. Suggestions for improvement of the 3R programme
Population and Sample
The population of this research was the PPISMP Jun 2020 intake who had just entered one of the IPG campuses. There were 281 students taking 6 majors, with 71 boys and 210 girls and a total of 281 as shown in table 1.
Table 1: Population of PPISMP Jun 2020 intake students in the various majors
Major No of students Total
Boys Girls
RBT 36 62 98
SN 3 15 18
MT 8 15 23
PI 5 75 80
BM 9 34 43
TSL 6 13 19
Total 71 210 281
The sampling method employed in this research for the survey was non-probability sampling.
The sample was a voluntary response sample taken from an online survey given to all the students in the population through their class WhatsApp groups. The number of students who responded to the survey was 171 or 60.9 % of the population. The students or respondents consist of 42 (59.2%) boys and 129 (61.4%) girls. The breakdown of their majors and percentage of population is given in table 2.
Table 2: Sample and percentage of population of PPISMP Jun 2020 intake students in the various majors
Major No of students (% of population) Total (% of
population)
Boys Girls
RBT 22 (61.1) 41 (66.1) 63 (64.3)
SN 2 (66.7) 15 (100) 17 (94.4)
MT 8 (100) 15 (100) 23 (100)
PI 4 (80.0) 35 (46.7) 39 (48.4)
BM 4 (44.4) 22 (64.7) 26 (60.5)
TSL 2 (33.3) 1 (7.7) 3 (15.6)
Total 42 (59.2) 129 (61.4) 171 (60.9)
Data collection
Data was collected through the Survey Form, the Registration Form and the Recycle-redeem Form. The survey was given to the students four months after the students were sent back home due to the MCO. The survey was conducted using an online Google Form called the Survey Form sent to all the students in the population through their class Whatsapp groups.
The Survey Form had 6 yes/no, 3 single select multiple choice, one multi-select multiple choice and 4 open-ended questions related to demographics, yes/no questions on interest in sustainability activities, awareness of the 3R programme, receptiveness towards the three elements of the 3R program, willingness to participate in the 3R programme, ease of obtaining plastic bottles and aluminium cans and suggestions for improvement of the programme.
A pilot test was conducted on 30 students for the 6 yes/no items in the survey on readiness to recycle which included interest in conservation activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R programme to determine the questions’ reliability through Cronbach’s Alpha. The value obtained was 0.714286 and shows acceptable internal consistency in the items.
The Registration Form provides information on the class and gender of the students who registered for the 3R programme. The Recycle-redeem Form provides information on the number of bottles, tins recycled, number of points collected and number of points and items redeemed during the three months the 3R programme was running.
Data Analysis
Analysis was done on the data from the survey and the registration and recycle-redeem form.
The quantitative data was analysed in terms of numbers and percentages. The qualitative data from the survey was analysed using content analysis with open coding. The analysis of the survey covers five sections which are (1) reasons for interest in sustainability, (2) sources of awareness of the 3R programme, (3) reasons for participation in the 3R programme, (4) availability of plastic bottles and aluminium cans and (5) suggestions for improvement of the 3R programme.
FINDINGS
The findings include the analyis of the survey, registration form and the recycle-redeem form.
Analysis of survey
The analysis of the data from the survey was divided into the yes/no questions and the single- select multiple choice, multi-select multiple choice and open-ended questions.
a) Analysis of yes/no questions
The respondents’ interest in sustainability activities, awareness, receptiveness of the elements and willingness to participate in the 3R programme were analysed and given in table 3.
Table 3: Interest in sustainability activities, awareness, receptiveness and willingness to participate in the 3R program
Item Yes (%) No (%)
1 Interest in sustainability activities 166 (97.1) 5 (2.9)
2 Awareness of the 3R programme 169 (98.8) 2 (1.2)
Receptiveness of the elements of the 3R programme
3 a) recycle items 159 (93.0) 12 (7.0)
4 b) redeem items with points 145 (84.8) 26 (15.2)
5 c) reuse old items 149 (87.1) 22(12.9)
6 Willingness to participate in the 3R programme
169 (98.8) 2 (1.2)
Four items have more than 90% yes and two items, which are redeem items with points and reuse old items in the 3R programme have 84.8% and 87.1% of yes. At least 84.8% of the respondents say yes to all the items, which means that at least 84.8% of 60.9% of the population or at least 51.6% of the population are interested in sustainability activities, are aware, receptive and willing to participate in the 3R programme.
b) Analysis of single-select multiple choice, multi-select multiple choice and open-ended questions
This analysis covers five areas which are reasons for interest in sustainability activities, sources of awareness of the 3R programme, reasons for involvement in the 3R programme, availability of plastic bottles and aluminium cans and suggestions for improvement of the 3R programme.
1. Reasons for interest in sustainability activities
In the open-ended question on why they were interested in sustainable activities, answers were grouped into five main factors, namely, environmental, aesthetic, emotional, values and intellectual. Table 4 shows the reasons for interest in sustainable activities and their percentage of respondents.
Table 4: Reasons respondents were interested in sustainable activities
Reasons Number of students (%)
Environmental (Protect and care for the environment) 69 (40.6) Asthetic (Clean and beautiful environment) 37 (21.6) Emotional (Fun, interesting and reduce stress) 20 (11.7) Values (Cultivate awareness of the importance of
maintaining and conserving our environment)
17 (9.9)
Intellectual (Gain more knowledge) 6 (3.5)
The top two concerns as to why the respondents were interested in sustainable activities were wanting to protect and care for the environment (41.6%) followed by wanting to keep the campus clean and beautiful (37%).
2. Sources of awareness of the 3R programme
In the multi-select multiple choice question, they knew about the programme through a briefing given (68.4%), watched the 3R video (48.5%), were informed by lecturers (71.9%) and friends (39.2%) and one respondent (0.6%) have not heard of the programme. Table 5 showed the sources of awareness of the 3R programme.
Table 5: Sources of awareness of the 3R programme in IPG KPT No. Sources of awareness of the 3R programme in
IPG KPT
Number of students (%)
1. Lecturers 123 (71.9%)
2. Briefing 117 (68.4%)
3. 3R video 83 (48.5%)
4. Friends 67 (39.2%)
5. Never heard 1 (0.6%)
The most effective source to disseminate information was the lecturers (71.9%), followed by the briefing given (68.4%), the 3R video (48.5%) and friends (39.2%).
3. Reasons for participation in the 3R programme
This section looks at the reasons for willingness to participate and not participate in the 3R programme.
a) Reasons to join the 3R programme
The reasons given in the open-ended question on why they wanted to join the programme include wanting to take care of the environment, influence of friends, wanting to maintain the cleanliness of the campus, availability of recycling items, being able to redeem items, the programme is meaningful to them, the influence of the briefing/video as well as education received from teachers, parents and the mass media as shown in table 6.
Table 6: Reasons respondents are willing to participate in the 3R programmes
Reasons Number of respondents (%)
Take care of the environment 34 (19.9)
Friends 15 (8.8)
Cleanliness of the campus 14 (8.2)
Has recycle items to recycle 12 (7.0)
Redeem item 10 (5.8)
Like/meaningful 7 (4.1)
Briefing/video 5 (2.9)
Education 5 (2.9)
b) Reasons for non-participation in the 3R programme
For the respondents who did not want to participate, table 7 shows their reasons, which included, did not get to register for the programme before returning home due to the MCO, not very clear about the programme, no recycling items, no time, lack of recycling bins in the hostel and no initiative to recycle.
Table 7: Reasons respondents are not willing to participate in the 3R programme.
Reasons Number of respondents (%)
Did not get to register before MCO 11 (6.4)
Not very clear about the 3R programme 7 (4.1)
No recycling items 6 (3.5)
No time 4 (2.3)
Lack of recycling bins in the hostel 1 (0.6)
No initiative to recycle 1 (0.6)
4) Availability of plastic bottles and aluminium cans
From the survey, in the single-select multiple choices question on how easy to obtain plastic bottles and aluminium cans. The analysis in table 8 showed that 80.7% of the respondents felt that it is easy to obtain plastic bottles whereas only 49.7% felt the same for aluminium cans.
Table 8: Availability of plastic bottles and aluminium cans to be recycled
No. Ease to obtain plastic bottles and aluminium cans Number of respondents (%) 1. Plastic bottles
a. Difficult b. Moderate c. Easy
2 (1.2%) 31 (18.1%) 138 (80.7%) 2. Aluminium cans
a. Difficult b. Moderate c. Easy
11 (6.4%) 75 (43.9%) 85 (49.7%) 5. Suggestions for improvement of the 3R programme
Suggestions given by the respondents to improve the 3R programme can be grouped into five areas which are increase recycle items, recycling activities, recycling bins and redeem incentives as well as create group identity as shown in table 9. Some recycle items that respondents mentioned most were plastic food containers (79.5%) followed by plastic bags (76.6%) and paper (12.7%). Increasing the number of activtities that is continuous and aimed to create interest, awareness and understanding through talks, competitions and projects were suggested by 38% of the respondents. Putting more recyling bins around campus and in the hostels were suggested by 17.5% of the respondents. Increasing redeem incentives like more redeem points and more attractive redeem items especially food items were suggested by 9.4% of the respondents. The last area suggested was to create student-led initiatives with a recylcing club and website with 2.9%.
Table 9: Suggestions for improvement
Suggestions Number of respondents (%)
1. Increase recycle items
a. Plastic food containers 136 (79.5)
b. Plastic bag 131 (76.6)
c. Paper 22 (12.7)
2. Increase recycling activities
Continuous activities to create interest, awareness and understanding through talks, competitions, projects
65 (38.0)
3. Increase the number of recycling bins 30 (17.5) 4. Increase redeem incentive
Increase points, more attractive redeem items especially food items
16 (9.4) 5. Student-led initiatives
Recycling club and website 5 (2.9)
Analysis of registration form
Data from the registration form was analyse to find the present participation of the students from the PPISMP Jun 2020 intake (281 students) in the 3R programme. The registration form provides the number, gender and major of the present participants. The number of participants for the 3R programme over the three months were 39 girls and 10 boys which made up 17.4%
of the 281 students as shown in table 10. The participants were from different majors, namely,
the Islamic Studies (PI) consisting of 5.3%, followed by Technology and Design(RBT), 3.6%, Science (SN), 3.2%, Malay Language (BM), 2.8%, Mathematics (MT), 1.8% and Teaching Englis as a Second Language (TSL), 0.7% of the population.
Table 10: Participation of the students based on their gender and major Major No of students who participated Total
participated
Percentage participation (%)
Boys Girls
PI 3 12 15 5.3
RBT 2 8 10 3.6
SN 2 7 9 3.2
BM 0 8 8 2.8
MT 3 2 5 1.8
TSL 0 2 2 0.7
Total 10 39 49 17.4
The analysis showed that only 17.4% of the population of PPISMP Jun 2020 intake took part in the 3R programme. The greatest number of participlation was from the PI(15) major group followed by RBT(10) and SN(9).
Analysis of recycle-redeem form
The recycle-redeem form provides the number and type of recycled items, total points collected as well as the redeemed items. There were 280 bottles and 32 aluminium cans collected during the three months. The total number of points collected were 34.4 points as shown in table 11.
Table 11: Number of recycled items, points collected and items redeemed Major No of plastic
bottles
No of Aluminium
cans
Total Points collected
Points redeemed
Items redeemed
PI 76 17 11.0 0
RBT 34 2 3.8 0
SN 132 4 14.0 7.5 Biscuits
BM 15 2 1.9 0
MT 0 0 0 0
TSL 23 7 3.7 0
Total 280 32 28 7.5
The science major group had the highest number of points collected which was 14 points while the Mathematics group had not collected any points. Only the Science students had redemmed items. The redeemed items were all biscuits.
DISCUSSION
This discussion will centre on two areas, namely readiness for involvement in the 3R programme in terms of interest in sustainability activities, awareness, receptiveness, and willingness to participate in the 3R programme. The second area is reasons and ways to improve participation in recycling and build a stronger recycling culture.
Readiness for involvement in the 3R programme
Concerning the 3R programme, based on the analysis, 98.8% of the respondents are aware of the 3R programme, mainly from the promotion of lectures, briefings and friends. They were also receptive to the 3R programme, where 93.0% like the element of recycling items, 84.8%
like the element of redeeming items with points and 87.1% like the element of reusing old items. Also, almost all of them or 98.8% were willing to participate in the 3R programme in future. Their main reason for this willingness was to take care of the environment at 19.9%, which corresponds to their main reason for interest in sustainable activities. When it comes to interest in sustainability activities, 97.1% said they were interested.
At least 84% of the respondents are interested in sustainability activities and are aware of the 3R programme, are receptive to the elements of the 3R programme as well as willing to participate in the 3R programme in future. This also means that at least 84.8% of 60.9% of the population or at least 51.6% of the population are ready to participate in the 3R programme This is much higher than the present participation in the 3R programme at 17.4%. There is then a lot of room to increase participation in the 3R programme when the students return to campus in future. Attention then needs to turn to the reasons for not participating and how to improve to increase participation.
Reasons for not participating and suggestions to improve the programme
Reasons given for not participating in the programme were, did not get to register before the MCO (6.4%), not very clear about the programme (4.1%), no recycle items (3.5%), no time (2.3%), lack of recycle bins in the hostel (0.6%) and no initiative to recycle (0.6%). Some of the students may need to take a longer time to consider participating in the 3R programme, and did not get to register before the MCO. The programme should therefore be for the long term to give time for the students to be involved.
Another reason was the students were not very clear about the programme. Knowledge and awareness is important, as Tiew et al. (2015) in their assessment of the sustainability level of community waste recycling programme in Malaysia, specifically at Surau Al-Husna, stated that one of the initial problems was a general lack of participation from members and community because of a gap in knowledge about the importance of environmental conservation to society and places of worship. Some of the things the committee did to sustain the recycling programme was to have continuous publicity and dissemination of recycling knowledge. This was in line with the suggestions of the respondents to organise more activities related to 3R, promote the 3R programmes more frequently, and hold competitions. Thus, awareness and knowledge of recycling should be a continuous engagement with the students with activities that they want to get involved in. This is supported by a study by Chung and Leung (2007) on university students that found a value-action gap between verbal recycling commitment and corresponding action in waste recycling on their university campus. To close this value-action gap, it is suggested that continuous, extensive, and innovative techniques to increase environmental awareness should be implemented at strategic points at which discrepancies between an individual’s environmental values and actions are most likely to occur. If those who give only verbal support to environmental values are reminded of the importance of those values, one would hope that they would then make their environmental actions fit their words.
These activities should be student-led, as suggested, where a recycling club and website can be set-up because they are the key stakeholders. They can then create relevant and impactful
messages that drive student awareness, organise events to advocate and motivate their fellow students to participate.
No recycling item was another reason for not participating. This could be because they do not buy bottled drinks and cans and therefore do not have the items on the recycling list in this programme, especially aluminium cans where only 49.7% of the respondents said is easy to obtain. In the three months, only 32 aluminium cans were collected versus 280 plastic bottles.
One of the suggestions is to increase the number of items for recycling. The suggested recycling items from the respondents were plastic food containers (79.5%), plastic bags (76.6%) and paper (12.7%). The students usually takeaway for their lunch and/or dinner. As such, a lot of plastic food containers and plastic bags are thrown away each day. They also use paper for their assignments. Recycling items should then reflect the students’ waste so that they can be involved.
Lack of recycling bins is also another reason for not joining the programme. Convenience is a factor to consider as pointed out by DiGiacomo et al. (2017). When recycling stations were placed just meters from suites in student residences, instead of in the basement, recycling increased by 147% (container), and 137% (paper), and composting increased by 139%, diverting 23, 22 and 14 kiligrams of containers, papers and compost, respectively, from the landfill per person per year. Simply making recycling and composting convenient can significantly increase waste diversion, and as such, this single intervention has important implications for waste management and environmental policy. Increasing the number of recycled bins around campus, especially in the hostels, is another suggestion of the respondents that will add to the convenience of recycling and hopefully an increase in participation. This may also reduce the no-time issue, as they don’t have to walk far to throw their recycled items into the bins.
On no initiative to recycle, maybe the suggestion of better redeem incentives like more points and more attractive redeem items can attract the studetns to be involved. Just as Bavani (2021) reported in The Star, the exchange of sugar, flour, cooking oil and condensed milk were popular and well received by the residences, maybe more redeem items that the students would be interested in like food items will provide better incentives to participate in the programme.
CONCLUSION
The 3R programme is one step towards the goal of building a recycled culture in campus. The initiative has gotten to a slow start but there is readiness for increased participation as, at least 50% of the population are interested in sustainable activities, aware, receptive and willing to participate in the 3R programme. With only 17.4% of the population having registered for this programme, there is great potential to increase participation. Nevertheless, improvements can be made through continuous engagement through activities that are student-led by forming a recycling club with a website, increasing items for recycling that reflects the students’ waste, greater convenience to recycle with more recycling bins and better redeem points and items that attract the students.
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