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Green behaviour: women and older consumers are more environmentally aware than men and youth


In April 2011 Synovate, a global market research firm with its head office in London, announced the results of a Global Trends study on “green behaviour” in which 22,000 people across 28 countries were interviewed.

Respondents were asked about their recycling habits, and their purchasing habits of ecological products and organic foods. They were also asked about their general beliefs in order to determine if there was a correlation between beliefs and green behaviour.

The study found that women around the world ranked higher than men across all green behaviour categories. People aged 56-65 years ranked highest in recycling and buying ecological products, while people aged 46-55 years ranked higher in purchasing organic food. Those aged 16-25 years scored lowest across all categories.

Recycling waste at home was more popular amongst women, with 54 percent saying they recycle waste, compared with 48 percent of men.

Respondents in Canada (88%), South Korea (86%), and Spain (84%) were most likely to recycle waste at home, followed by Belgium (82%), Italy (81%) and the United Kingdom (81%). Those least likely to recycle waste at home were people in Indonesia, Russia, and Egypt where less than 15% of respondents said they had recycled in the past week.

Canada appeared to have an effective system to support households to recycle waste: homes are given a blue bin for recycling material, a green bin for biodegradable items (such as food), and a black bin for items that didn’t fit in the first two categories. Sorting garbage at the household level has had an impressive impact on waste recycling awareness.

Regarding purchasing ecological products, Denmark (59%) and Sweden (52%) were the most frequent consumers. Serbia (8%) and China (9%) ranked lowest.

Denmark (69%) also led all countries in the purchase of organic food, followed by United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and Germany. The lowest purchasers of organic food were Indonesia (3%) and Japan (10%). Organic foods continue to be expensive in many countries and accessibility is low.

Interestingly, the three “habits” did not correlate with each other. In other words, it does not necessarily mean that those who bought organic food were high waste recyclers at home. For example, people in the United Kingdom buy few ecological products, but are high recyclers. The study also cites examples of communities that are skeptical about global warming and its scientific predictions, but still embrace clean energy habits based on economic, patriotic, or spiritual reasons.
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