According to the Environmental News Network, a study at the University of Granada finds housewives much better about recycling than university students.
There are of course some theories being applied to it including the Theory of Planned Behaviour and and some pseudo-philosophic psychological theory including moral makeup, since university students perceived “more obstacles.” It wouldn’t be a study if the students didn’t at least try to get all collegiate about it.
And it wouldn’t be collegiate unless they completely overlooked some obvious factors concerning the people studied.1 While the study samples are still a bit on the small side - some 500 students to 100 housewives, which is a significant sample but still less than the 1000 plus required for empirical data - it has some merit, espeically if you think about the life of a housewife versus the life of a college student.
1. Assuming most of these college students lived in dormitories and had meal plans, such activities as meal planning and space planning were not part of their routine activities. To most recycling and similar activites would be “going out of their way” just because so much of the self-management parts of their lives, particularly cleaning and meals, are actually relegated to other parties in a university setting, causing them not to consider it.
Missing information: how many students lived in dormitories? How many commuted? How many were “traditional” aged students? How much crossover was there between “housewives” and increasingly common “nontrad” students?
Also, while it doesn’t seem relevant, I think it would also be highly relevant: how many of these students were prone to hoarding practices? College students are often lousy recyclers, but when it comes to repurposing, they are usually at the front of that brave new world.
2. Housewives are the de factor managers of their households. Any cohabitation is a business arrangement just as much as it is familial, and the women involved will likely be concerned with long-term sustainability of their land and immediate environment, especially if they have children. Recycling advertising is very much directed at homes, and women - it’s almost always a female voiceover in those “please recycle” television advertisments.
Some relevant questions that are missing on the housewives end:
How many have children? How many have part time jobs? How many live in apartments? How many are also students?
I personally am not surprised by this finding - college students believe they have no time, while housewives really do have no time despite the stereotype of them watching soaps and eating bon bons. The housewives don’t have time because they actually are doing all that work of recycling. Heck, I work mostly from home and I never know a moments peace because there’s always something else I need to be doing!
