Cascade Alliance

One Good Thing: The More You Know the More You Do

Do you ever wonder what happens to your items after you donate them?  A new paper was recently published in the Journal of Marketing from Researchers at Penn State University and Boston College.  The study found that people are more likely to recycle when they know what becomes of their waste.  This is great news to hear!

Below are a few key facts from the study:

“In the first study, participants were asked to dispose of some scratch paper. Participants who saw a recycling message involving recycled material being transformed into the same product–paper (80.5%), or a different product, a guitar (79.1%)-recycled more than participants who saw a generic recycling message not involving product transformation (50.9%).

“The second study showed that participants who viewed advertisements for products made from identified recycled plastic items were more likely to recycle (87.7%) than those who viewed advertisements for products that only mention the company engages in recycling practices (71.7%).”

St. Vinnie’s also engages in the practice of letting our donors know what becomes of their donations.  We combine old paraffin with cotton mattresses to create fire starts, old t-shirts gain new life by being cut up and sold to the wiping industry, and old belt become wrist cuffs through a simple process.