The zero waste concept from young consumers’ perspective. Does gender matter?

Sylwia Badowska, Liwia Delińska

Abstract


Theoretical background: Sustainable development is a new widely desirable course in the economy of the 21st  century. Its goals can be met by consumers implementing a zero waste concept understood as a lifestyle that assumes the maximum reduction of household waste production.

Purpose of the article: The paper sheds a light on consumer awareness of the zero waste concept among young people, who face a long consumption life, and identifis the gender role in the process of applying this concept in practice.

Research methods: To achieve the research goal, a survey was carried out among consumers aged 19–24, and the original consumer zero waste sensibility scale was proposed and employed to obtain results.

Main findings: The outcomes suggest that the zero waste concept is more widely known among women, who show a higher level of consumer zero waste sensibility than men.


Keywords


zero waste concept; consumer zero waste sensibility; sustainable consumption; young consumers

Full Text:

PDF

References


Guerrero, L.A., Maas, G., & Hogland W. (2013). Solid waste management challenges for cities in developing countries, Waste Management, vol. 33.

Lehmann S., (2010). Resource Recovery and Materials Flow in the City: Zero Waste and Sustainable Consumption as Paradigms in Urban Development. Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 11(1).

Murray, A., Skene, K., & Haynes, K. (2017). The Circular economy: An interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context. J. of Business Ethics,140(3).

Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, (1994). Oslo Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Palmer P. (2004). Getting to Zero Waste, Purple Sky Press, Sebastopol, CA, USA.

Polskie Stowarzyszenie Zero Waste (PSZW) (2018). Czym jest zero waste? Retrieved from: http://zero-waste.pl/czym-jest-zero-waste/ [access: 1.08.2018].

Sheehan B. (2000), Zero Waste - A New Vision for the 21st Century, http://archive.grrn.org/zerowaste/articles/21st_cent_vision_zw.html; [derived: 25.05.2018].

Song Q., Li J., & Zeng X. (2016). Minimizing the increasing solid waste through zero waste strategy. J. of Cleaner Production, vol. 104.

Vicente-Molina M.A, Fernandez-Sainz J., & Izagirre-Olaizola J. (2018). Does gender make a difference in pro-environmental behaviour? The case of the Basque Country University students, J. of Cleaner Production, (176).

Xiao, C., & McCright, A.M. (2014). A test of the biographical availability argument for gender differences in environmental behaviours. Environmental Behaviour, 47(1).




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/h.2019.53.1.7-17
Date of publication: 2019-10-14 10:02:00
Date of submission: 2019-02-04 14:32:10


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1127
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Sylwia Badowska, Liwia Delińska

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.