New Blog 1: Hard Drive Disposal

Monday, 29 October 2012

Hard Drive Disposal

There are measures to combat false self-reporting, though. Dr Steven Guilbert, of Kingston University, is involved in a new project that will attempt to identify green champions and eco-refuseniks in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, where questionnaires are being sent to one in 10 (or 6,300) households in the area. “There are a few people who are anti-recycling, and they’ll likely fill out the questionnaire to make their argument known”, he says. “Then there are people who are really enthusiastic about recycling, so they’ll fill it in too because it’s something they feel strongly about. The issue is reaching people in the middle.” To ensure that people in this group not only fill in the surveys, but do so in an accurate way, a number of steps have been taken. Firstly, the questionnaire has been incentivised with a prize draw, and people’s predicted concerns have been carefully considered. “Of course, it’s anonymous, and we emphasise that the data is confidential”, he says. “We also include a letter that tells the recipients that we’re keen to hear from every kind of recycler, and we reiterate that we’re independent from the local authority, that we’re not here to check up on them or catch them out.”