THE EFFECTS OF 3 PROMPTING METHODS ON RECYCLING PARTICIPATION RATES -A FIELD-STUDY

This study compares the effects of three commonly used prompting metho ds on recycling participation rates. These are: 1) the securing of ple dges to recycle through direct, personal contact, 2) the securing of p ledges through indirect contact, and 3) the dissemination of education al information alone, with no personal contact or pledge. We applied t he three prompting methods to residents of married student housing com munities at Louisiana State University during a five-week test program . Securing pledges through direct contact led to significantly higher rates of recycling than either gaining pledges through indirect contac t or disseminating only educational information. However, pledging, pe r se, was not shown to result in higher rates of participation. We con clude that the direct-contact prompting raised awareness of recycling, increased peer pressure to recycle, and enhanced delivery of recyclin g information, and that these effects led to increased participation l evels.