Interviewer: Okay (.) umm (.) do you ever think about your actions impacting the environment in the
future? //
P2 & P4 & P5: Yeah//
P1: Definitely (..) I erm it always comes to mind if like the fish’s and that getting caught up in all like waste
and stuff that’s been put in the sea when I’m constantly I all always (.) like now it’s just second nature to
turn a light off in a room like I won’t even think about it I’ll just do it // (..) definitely//
All participants: Yeah//
Interviewer: Umm okay (.) do you believe it should be the industries making changes or us as consumers to
reduce plastic and cardboard waste? Who has the biggest impact consumers or high street fashion companies?
P3: Fashion companies I think//
P4: I think both //
P1: I think both //
P2: I think both but maybe more consumers than retailers//
P1: I think re.. like retailers need to (.) like improve their packaging and things like that and (.) as a customer we need to be educated with what we need to do with that once we’ve got it like the packaging (.) how
to recycle it and how to reuse it //
P2: I think it also needs to be really incredibly accessible to us because I think if it (.) if like me if (..) that
glass bottle thing was right in front of my house I’d do it (.) but because it’s not I just throw it in the bin so
I think it needs to be accessible so that we’re not lazy when it comes to recycling //
P5: I think with the new carry bag incentive (.) I take a bag everywhere now normally than keep buying
one to use it I’d rather reuse it //
P1: I think that whole things brilliant // that that they’ve bought that charge in cause it really does make
people think twice //
P5: Yeah //
P2: People get really angry at it // they’re just like it’s a scam (.) but then they’ve bought their own bags so
it’s working because they don’t want to pay the 5p //
P1 & P3 & P4 &P5 : Yeah //
Interviewer: You’ve just answered another one of my questions later on [laugh]
[All laugh]
Interviewer: Okay umm (.) What would your reaction be to this WRAP recycling statistic (..) ‘In 2015 a
report found that 40% of our plastics came from packaging, overall in the UK we are generating 2.4 million
tonnes per year of packaging waste’ //
P2: That’s a lot//
P1: That’s a lot but it doesn’t shock me//
P2: In a way, it doesn’t shock me//
P3: I suppose it will get better now that we have the bag charge well hopefully but even when order somethings online (.) I mean I know you don’t want to order something that comes all damaged but they do put
a lot of packaging on//
Interviewer: It’s almost too much isn’t it! //
All participants: Yeah //
Interviewer: Okay you’ve answered the one about the 5p law (..) I was just basically do you agree with the
new law that’s come out or do you disagree//
P4: Can I add something on to that//
Interviewer: Yeah, of course you can//
P4: When we were looking at this in the last focus group I kind of feel like it’s only been really made an
impact on people’s lives now that it’s been implemented and it’s kind of ‘this is what we have to do’ now I
kind of feel like if it wasn’t for that then we wouldn’t have done it (.) and I feel like that should be put into
other types of recycling (.) I know like they say you have to recycle but it was never bought to the forefront
of people’s minds that never like made them think that’s what needed to be done until someone higher up
said this is what you have to do//
P2: Yeah now it’s a law//
P1: There’s also the opposite of that though instead of being charged you get money for recycling so I don’t
know if they do it here but in Australia if you recycle like your beer bottles you get 10 Cent for every bottle
so it’s an incentive for people to recycle//
XXVII