Powerful metaphors can help tackle toxic e-waste

A new study shows that consumers who say that not recycling their batteries “has a pollution risk equivalent to 140 Olympic swimming pools a year” are more likely to participate in an electrical waste recycling program. death.

Article from the University of Portsmouth explores how to improve our sustainable handling of e-waste (e-waste).

With Christmas around the corner and consumers buy the latest mobile phones, tablets, headphones and televisions, old electronic products that no longer exist and add to an alarming amount of hazardous e-waste.

Experts at the University of Portsmouth conducted research to examine what factors encourage consumers to safely dispose of e-waste, which will be useful to regulators and policy makers implement treatment plans.

Lead author of the study, Dr Diletta Acuti, from the University’s Faculty of Business and Law, said: “The world Waste of electricity This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed urgently. E-waste usually contains toxic, such as mercury, lead or acid, will eventually end up in landfills without any special treatment or precautions, causing significant long-term damage to the environment and human health. Therefore, the adequate treatment of this waste is a necessity for the environment.”

In 2019, 205,000 tons of portable batteries were sold in Europe, but only half were collected Recycling. Dr. Acti’s research specifically looked at battery handling.

The researchers conducted a Field test in Northern Italy, where the proximity of trash bins and the language used to encourage recycling influenced the efforts of 100 people to dispose of their e-waste.

“We are buying more and more technology that creates mountains of e-waste and the problem is only going to get worse, but proper disposal of this waste can only be achieved if the consumer,” she said. actively participate in recycling.

“Our study looks at what factors are effective to try and encourage people to recycle their e-waste, which we hope will be helpful for implementing successful disposal plans. “

Several bins were installed to collect old batteries and letters were sent to inform people of the new plan.

Some letters include metaphorical language to see if this encourages recycling efforts, and others include numerical information. The researchers found that metaphorical language has a stronger influence on consumer actions.

“Those were asked to consider the fact that batteries contain about one gram of mercury, an amount that could contaminate the equivalent of seven bathtubs of water, and we pose the equivalent of 140 swimming pools of pollution. Olympic Games each year, there are more possibilities to recycle their batteries,” Dr. Acuti explains.

Metaphors conjure up a representation of an object – too large or too distant from the individual’s living reality, like a large amount of water – in the mind of the consumer, which makes a Abstract objects become more concrete and easier to understand.

“By strategically placing trash cans and making disposal plan information easy to understand, we can really change consumer behavior and use marketing for a good reason.” better world.”

The findings are published in the journal Forecasting technology and social change.