| 2004 |
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YEAR BOOK |
Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna, Co. Clare
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Attitudes to Green!
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�To examine people's attitudes to waste management and energy conservation.
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�To see if there is a difference in attitudes between second level students and adults.
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�To see if factors such as gender and age affect attitudes.
When we looked at people's attitudes to waste management and energy conservation, some of the results we got would point to a positive attitude to these topics. One of these would be that 53% of adults always turn off lights when not needed, with 44% doing it sometimes. For students, 39% always turn lights off, with 55% saying sometimes. 92% of students use recycling bins at school either always or sometimes. 93% of adults use recycling bins either always or sometimes. 95% of adults agreed that recycling is a good thing, and 97% of students also agreed that recycling is a good thing.
When we looked at differences in attitudes between second level students and adults, we found some significant differences. For instance, when we asked: 'Do you collect waste for recycling at home?', 51% of adults said they always collected waste for recycling at home, whereas only 19% of students said they did, 12% of adults said never, whereas 30% of students said never.
There were some differences in behaviour and attitudes between males and females and between the different age groups. One difference between males and females was in relation to the statement: 'There is less litter today than in the past'. Here 55% of males agreed with the statement, but only 23% of females agreed with it. A lot of the other opinions were fairly alike with regard to males and females.
With regard to the age groups, one difference between groups was in relation to the statement: 'Households should be charged by how much waste they produce'. Here 92% of the 60+ age group agreed, 88% of the 45-60 age group, 59% of the 30-44 age group, and 56% of the 18-29 age group agreed. A lot of the other questions had little differences in the replies between the different age groups.
Darren O'Gorman & Gear�id Conneely won second prize in the Junior Group Section in the Social and Behavioural Sciences Category at the EsatBT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in January 2004. They also won a Special Award sponsored by Comhar � The National Sustainable Development Partnership. Their teacher was Mr John Sims.
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This article was sponsored by Comhar
The National Sustainable Development Partnership |
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