Warwick Gives a Crap!

THE PROBLEM

Recycling has been around for a while now and it’s one of the main ways that individuals can attempt to reduce their environmental impact. It’s something we consider ourselves to be good at and we all consistently recycle plastic, glass and paper products where we can instead of throwing them in the landfill. There has even been an increase in recycling campaigns reported in the mainstream media. One of the most recent stories has been the introduction of paper straws in some major restaurant chains, instead of plastic ones. It seems we are finding more ways to use recycling to reduce our environmental impact besides simply recycling waste products. However, there are some less obvious methods which many people are not aware of because they haven’t been reported in mainstream media. One in particular which we are passionate about is the use of recycled toilet paper instead of virgin rolls.

The production of recycled toilet paper is significantly less damaging to the environment than virgin toilet paper in a number of ways; it has the potential to save a lot of trees, its manufacturing process involves 28-70% less energy consumption and also uses less water than virgin toilet paper. The average person uses 13kg of toilet paper every year. If that were recycled toilet paper instead it would save 30,000 liters of water and 3000 to 4000 kwh of electricity (enough to power a 3-bedroom house for one year). Therefore, an individual person can actually make a huge impact by switching to recycled toilet paper. So why haven’t more people made the switch? We got students to fill out a short survey and discovered two main reasons. The first is that people simply aren’t aware that recycled toilet paper is available and easily accessible. This is why the main aim of our project was to raise awareness of it. The second is that people who are aware of recycled toilet paper hold negative beliefs about its appearance, quality and cost. We wanted to challenge those beliefs and show that recycled toilet paper is actually no different from regular toilet paper.

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

We wanted to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of using virgin toilet paper and promote the use of recycled toilet paper among students. We felt that not enough students were aware of the issues of virgin toilet paper and the individual impact they could have if they switched. We also wanted to address the negative beliefs they held. Many students believed recycled toilet paper is rough, expensive and not widely available - all of which are false. As most students are on a budget, we decided that offering them free samples of recycled toilet paper would be an effective way to try and challenge their negative impressions of it. It also gave them the opportunity to see the product for themselves. We also provided information about the damaging environmental impact of virgin toilet paper and where to find recycled toilet paper online and in shops. We also wanted to take this one step further and target the university itself to see if recycled toilet paper is being used across the campus. Using recycled toilet paper across campus could make a huge impact due to the large quantities needed each day.

WHAT WE DID

Preparation

We wanted to give students the chance to actually try out some recycled toilet paper, as it would be more effective in changing their behaviour and challenging their negative beliefs. To find some samples to hand out to students, we contacted various companies that produce recycled toilet paper and one company (Lucarts Professional) kindly donated 64 toilet rolls to our project.  

Instagram Account

In order to reach a vast number of students and let them know about the project, we created an Instagram account, which can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/warwickgivesacrap/. We believed Instagram would be the best social media platform as it has over 1000 million users and over 60% of the users are young adults (18-34) (Statista, n.d.). The account was used to inform people about recycled toilet paper, statistics about their environmental impact and show pictures of people who received the free samples of recycled toilet paper from us.

The Students

We distributed the recycled toilet paper outside the library on two separate days, as it’s one of the busiest places on campus. We created a poster to display at the table, which contained information about the environmental impacts of virgin toilet paper. We kept the poster concise and visual to effectively deliver the message, even to people who were walking past quickly. More detailed information was provided in leaflets, including where to purchase recycled toilet paper. In order to attract people’s attention, we also held two signs reading ‘Free Toilet Paper’ which were created from the cardboard box the recycled toilet papers were delivered in.


People who seemed interested were offered a free recycled toilet roll and a leaflet containing more details about the toilet paper. We also talked with people about the issues, since verbal information is more effective at increasing people’s purchase intentions (Kim & Lennon, 2008). After being offered the sample and information, people were asked to complete a short form. This was just for us to know if we had changed their mind about using recycled toilet paper in the future and if so, when they would start using it. The form only contained four questions to encourage participation. We also asked some people if they would mind being in a photo to post on our Instagram account.

We distributed over 50 recycled toilet papers and informed more than 70 people about the environmental benefits of switching. Our form showed that 100% of the people who completed it were willing to start using recycled toilet papers within a week or few weeks.

The University

There are over 32,000 students and staff at the University of Warwick (University of Warwick [UoW], n.d.). Therefore, we felt it was important to also encourage the university to use recycled toilet paper across the campus. We contacted the tender and contract manager and informed him about the environmental benefits and prices of recycled toilet paper.  The manager expressed great interest and enthusiasm for the issues we presented to him. Unfortunately, the university has recently signed a new contract and they are unable to switch to another supplier. However, he agreed to contact the company to find out if the current toilet paper is made of recycled materials and we are yet to hear back from him about this.

PERSUASION TECHNIQUES USED

The ‘Free’ Sample

One of the techniques we employed was the free sample. Of course the sample was mainly there to give people an idea of the quality of recycled toilet paper and challenge their negative beliefs about it’s roughness. However, as the sample was a gift to each student, the reciprocity rule was in play. The theory of reciprocity states that we try to repay people who provide us with things (Gouldner, 1960). It means we are obligated to repay others if they do us a favour in some way. For example, if someone gives you a birthday gift you should repay them by giving them a gift in return at their next birthday. It’s widespread across human culture and is thought to have developed as an adaptive mechanism to ensure humans work together to share the workload and subsequently become a more effective unit (Tiger & Fox, 1971, Ridley, 1997)

In terms of our project, the reciprocity rule would suggest that receiving a free roll of recycled toilet paper would result in each student feeling indebted to us. This would therefore increase the likelihood that they would buy recycled toilet paper in the future. Research shows that people who are given a free sample of something are more likely to actually buy it in the future (Kolyesnikova & Dodd, 2009; Friedman & Rahman, 2011). However, we don’t know exactly how this rule might affect the students as there are many other factors involved in reciprocity (Molm, 2010). One thing we do know is that a roll of recycled toilet paper is a much longer reminder than only giving the student information verbally once (Axtell et al, 1997). This means they will be reminded multiple times when they use the roll about the environmental impacts of virgin toilet roll, which will be more effective than being presented with information once.

Public Commitment

Another persuasion technique used for the project was public commitment. Research suggests that publicly stating intentions increases the likelihood that a person will carry out that behaviour. For example, an experiment found that people who publicly committed to conserve energy were more likely to reduce gas and electricity use than people who committed anonymously (Pallak, Cook, & Sullivan, 1980). Public commitment is effective because people wish to appear consistent due to the social cost of being labelled a ‘liar’ (Pallak et al., 1980). Research showed that people who lied were less liked and more lied to by others (Tyler, Feldman, & Reichert, 2006). Therefore, publicly stating to use recycled toilet paper would increase the likelihood of purchasing it in the future.

Both the photos of people posted on our Instagram account, and the form about whether we had convinced them to use recycled toilet paper in the future, were used to make people commit publically. People who agreed to have their photos taken were aware that the picture would be uploaded to our Instagram account. The form involved people providing their names next to the statements about using recycled toilet paper in the future, and it was evident that others would be able to view their response when they completed the form after them. In order to strengthen the effects of this public commitment, we also used the implementation intention theory. Gollwitzer (1999) claims that having a goal does not necessarily lead to behaviour, but that a plan needs to be put in place. Many research has yielded results consistent with this theory (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). In our form, we asked people to specify when they would start using recycled toilet paper (creating a plan) and thus, increased the likelihood that they would switch to recycled toilet paper.

In the case of the university, we asked the tender and contract manager if the email content could be shared with people who are interested in the project. This would cause the manager to believe he has made a public commitment to investigate the possibility of the university switching to recycled toilet paper.  

THE FUTURE OF THE PROJECT

In the future, our project could easily be expanded to reach the wider community and target populations other than students. We are also waiting to hear back from the university on details of the current toilet paper used on campus and whether it’s made of recycled materials. Hopefully in the future the university will make the switch to recycled toilet paper when they are able to.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we believe urging people to use recycled toilet paper has significant environmental benefits, especially considering the amount of toilet paper consumed per day. Through our project we were able to reach over 70 people and believe the persuasion techniques we used would lead the majority to use recycled toilet papers. However, causing more people and organisations to use recycled toilet paper is of great importance. Future projects should aim to reach wider communities.





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