The authors began the data analysis and the drawing up of the “big picture” by hypothesis testing. The results are to be found below.
H
01—
“The majority of respondents consider that caring for the environment is very important.
-hypothesis confirmed thanks to 52.61% percentage of respondents considering it “very important”.
H
02—
“The majority of respondents agree with selective waste collection as a basis to new goods production”.
-hypothesis confirmed thanks to 73.77% share of respondents who “totally agree”.
H
03—
“More than 50% of the respondents consider that in order to avoid exhaustion of natural resources, selective collection of waste is very important”.
-hypothesis confirmed thanks to 58.68% share of respondents who believe that selective collection of waste is very important in order to avoid the exhaustion of natural resources.
H
04—
“At least 25% of the respondents consider very important the aspect by which through energy recovery from waste, savings on electricity, oil, natural gas and coal can be achieved”.
-hypothesis confirmed thanks to 67.48% percentage allotted to the replies “very important”.
H
05—
“More than 25% of the respondents always adopt at least one of the eco-friendly specified activities”.
-hypothesis not confirmed, the share of respondents who “always” make an eco-friendly activity from the specified ones ranges from 1.69% in the case of going to work by bike to 17.02% in the case of going to work by a mean of public transportation.
H
06—
“At least 50% of the investigated respondents agree that it is desirable for the future economy of “zero waste”, in which all goods are: (a) reused; (b) recycled”.
-hypothesis confirmed due to the percentage of 57.06% of respondents «totally agreeing» with goods’ recycling in order to achieve a “zero waste” economy and 41.26% of respondents “totally agreeing” with goods’ reusing in order to achieve a “zero waste” economy.
H
07—
“No more than half of the investigated respondents agree that efficiency increasing of using resources represents a mean by which the objectives of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) can be achieved”.
-hypothesis confirmed due to the share of respondents “totally agreeing” that the increase of the efficiency of resources’ use represents a means by which the objectives of the sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) through: (a) resources’ savings (39.49%), substitutions (31.93%) and use of less resources (35.73%); The hypothesis has not been confirmed for the case (b), 51.58% of the respondents totally agreeing that the increase of the efficiency of resources’ use represents a mean by which the objectives of the sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) through recycling.
H
08—
“At least 25% of the respondents agree that the CE business models are beneficial to the economy.”
-hypothesis confirmed due to the percentage of 32.52% of respondents “totally agreeing” that CE business models based on reuse are beneficial to the economy and 44.63% of respondents “totally agreeing” that CE business models based on recycling are beneficial to the economy.
H
09—
“At least 25% of the respondents agree that the CE business models are beneficial to the ecological environment.”
-hypothesis confirmed due to the percentage of 48.69% of respondents “totally agreeing” that CE business models based on reuse are beneficial to the environment and 54.85% of respondents «totally agreeing» that CE business models based on recycling are beneficial to the environment.
As a conclusion of hypothesis’ testing, it can be said that most hypothesis have been confirmed. The interesting result has been brought by H05—“More than 25% of the respondents always adopt at least one of the eco-friendly specified activities”, hypothesis not confirmed, the share of respondents who “always” make an eco-friendly activity from the specified ones ranges from 1.69% in the case of going to work by bike to 17.02% in the case of going to work by a mean of public transportation. In other words, eco-friendly activities are not adopted by consumers as frequent as it could be expected, taking in consideration the importance given to the concern for the environment.
The results of the survey will also be discussed starting from the components of the conceptual model, which the authors described. More exactly, the first step will be the presentation of the results regarding the consumers’ attitudes toward the environment (point “A” of the conceptual model). The second step will be the presentation of the results of the items reflecting the sustainable consumption practices, which the respondents show in the present (point “B” of the conceptual model). The third step will be the presentation of the results of the items reflecting the attitudes the respondents have with regard to sustainable production and towards business models based on products’ reuse and recycling (CE business models) (point “C” of the conceptual model). Step four will consist in discussing the probability of respondents’ adopting consumption behaviors characteristic to CE business models (point “D” of the conceptual model), on the basis of the results at the items from points A, B and C.
3.3. Resources’ Depletion and Energy Production from Waste
Depletion of natural resources is a debated topic, and a new study published by the Sustainability Global Institute argues that a number of countries in the European Union will face a “critical shortage” of natural resources. According to the report, at the end of 2013, the estimations were that Romania still has oil reserves for 19 years, reserves of natural gas for 9.3 years and coal reserves for 9 years. According to the eight edition of the Living Planet Index 2012 [
20], Romania has an average ecological footprint (meaning the use of resources for food, fuel, clothing and construction materials) of 2.7 hectares per capita. In comparative terms, the planet can offer only 1.8 hectares of land and water. Natural capital includes resources from the Earth’s crust (e.g., minerals, oil), resources produced by humans (synthetic substances), as well as the resources of the biosphere. Equitable access to natural capital is also a component of sustainability [
21].
An alternative to capitalizing of the materials (through recycling) is the recovery of the energy contained in waste. This can result in significant environmental benefits, particularly for materials that have a high calorific value.
Regarding the quantities of biodegradable waste generated in Romania, the State of the Environment Report from year 2014 says that, from the total amount of municipal waste, most of it is household waste or similar (76.4%), while about 53.35% of the waste is represented by biodegradable waste [
15].
In the Government Decision no. 870/2013 for approval of the National Strategy for Waste Management 2014–2020, the concept of hierarchy of waste was defined, waste management measures being categorized according to their impact of the environment on long term [
22].
The Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC establishes the targets for 2020 on reusing and recycling of household waste and assimilated at a minimum share of 50% of the waste’s weight, for paper, metal, plastic and glass [
7,
23,
24]. For non-hazardous waste, originating from construction and demolition activities, the minimal share is of 70% of the waste’s weight.
Given this context, an item measuring the importance given to savings on electricity, oil, natural gas and coal, through energetic valorization of waste, on a 1 to 5 importance scale, where {1} = not important at all, {3} = neither important or unimportant and {5} = very important, was included in the questionnaire. The responses have not been surprising: 94.93% of the respondents consider that savings on electricity, oil, natural gas and coal obtained from energy production from waste is important or very important. Over 80% of the respondents from 25 to 54 years consider the energy recovery from waste for achieving savings in electricity, oil, natural gas and coal as very important. The share of respondents considering these issues as very important, by age category, is presented in
Table 4.
Point B. Sustainable consumption practices at present—is represented in the study by the frequency of adopting an eco-friendly activity, eight eco-friendly activities being considered and which frequencies have been measured on a 5 responses scale, where: {1} = never, {2} = rarely, {3} = sometimes, {4} = frequently and {5} = always. The eco-friendly activities considered were: going to the work with a public transport vehicle, going to work by bike, sharing a personal car with colleagues for going to work, separate collection of paper waste, separate collection of plastic waste, separate collection of used cooking oil, leading used batteries to collection centers and leading light bulbs to collection centers.
The responses to these questions are a lot more divided as the ones considering the importance of caring for the environment (point “A” of the conceptual model).
Of respondents, 48.93% go to work using public transportation frequently or always. Though it may seem a big figure, it still is far away from that of more than 90% considering the concern for the environment as important or very important.
The other response variants counted from a little more than 11% to a little more than 19% each. It is also very probable that the answer is also influenced by the ownership or not of a personal car.
As an alternative to public transportation, going to work by bike is done frequently or always by only 7.37% of the respondents. Actually, 72.39% of the respondents never go to work by bike.
Another eco-friendly way to go to work, a personal car sharing with colleagues, is done on a frequent basis or always only by 25.92% of the respondents.
Among the highest scores at eco-friendly activities, separate collection of paper waste, is done on a frequent basis or always by 46.16% of the respondents.
Also separate collection of plastic waste rates relatively high among the eco-friendly activities, 46.78% of the respondents declaring to separately collecting plastic waste on a frequent basis or always.
Always separately collecting the paper waste and the plastic waste tend to correspond with the national value in the study made by Eco-Rom Ambalaje [
25], which was of 12% of the population in 2013, strengthening our research data.
The separate collection of used cooking oil rates pretty low even relatively to the other eco-friendly activities, with only 28.68% of the respondents declaring to make it on a frequent basis or always.
Leading used batteries to special collection centers does not rate much higher than the precedent one, with only 33.89% of the respondents making it on a frequent basis or always.
Neither leading used light bulbs to special collection centers figure does not look any better, with only 21.63% of the respondents doing this eco-friendly activity frequently or always.
Since the responses show consumers’ behavior with regard to eco-friendly activities, instead of attitudes, the authors considered important to present the answers’ distribution within the paper and they are to be found in
Table 5.
Point C. Attitudes towards sustainable production and towards business models based on products’ reuse and recycling (CE business models) is represented by the five items:- -
Agreement with selective waste collection as a basis to new goods production, measured on a 1 to 5 scale, where {1} = total disagreement, {3} = neither agreement or agreement and {5} = total agreement.
- -
Attitude regarding the desirability for the future of a “zero waste” economy, in which all materials and products are (a) reused; (b) recycled, measured on a 1 to 5 scale, where {1} = total disagreement, {3} = neither agreement or agreement and {5} = total agreement.
- -
Agreement with the proposition: “increase of the efficiency of resources’ use represents a mean by which the objectives of the sustainable development (economic, social and environmental ones) can be achieved through: (a) Saving; (b) Recycling; (c) Substitution; (d) Use of less resources (Example: the use of fewer resources, by reducing the weight of vehicles), measured on a 1 to 5 scale, where {1} = total disagreement, {3} = neither agreement or agreement and {5} = total agreement.
- -
Agreement with the proposition “business models based on: (a) Reuse; (b) Recycling are beneficial to the economy, measured on a 1 to 5 scale, where {1} = total disagreement, {3} = neither agreement or agreement and {5} = total agreement.
- -
Agreement with the proposition “business models based on: (a) Reuse; (b) Recycling are beneficial to the environment”, measured on a 1 to 5 scale, where {1} = total disagreement, {3} = neither agreement or agreement and {5} = total agreement.
The findings are presented below.
3.5. Sustainable Consumption
The management of consumption of resources by humans is an indirect approach, based largely on information gained from economics. Human impact on the environment can be reduced not only by lower consumption, but also through the development of more sustainable production based on a complete cycle, use and discard.
Herman Daly [
26] suggested three general criteria for ecological sustainability: renewable resources should provide a sustainable yield (rate of harvest should not exceed the regeneration rate); for non-renewable resources, there should be an equivalent development of renewable substitutes; waste generation should not exceed the capacity of environment assimilation.
The main determinant of human impact on Earth systems is the consumption of biophysical resources. Human consumption can be considered as determined by three key components: population, levels of consumption (affluence) and the impact on the resources used (which depends on the technology used). By establishing quantitative measures for sustainability, it becomes possible setting goals, management strategies, implementation and measuring progress [
27].
Experts define many ways in which consumers can make environmentally responsible choices or responsible toward the society. The only thing over which all agree is that millions of shoppers are willing to pay extra for healthier and safer products. They add millions of consumers who make responsible choices because they are worried about the future of the planet and its inhabitants [
10,
28,
29,
30].
Over three-quarters of respondents agree or totally agree (answers {4} or {5}) that recycling (82.56% of the respondents) and reuse (90.80% of the respondents) are components of a desired “zero waste” economy.
In addition, the share of the respondents who agree or totally agree that the increase of resources’ use is a mean to reach the goals of sustainable development are of 86.57%, for the efficiency increase through resources’ savings, while 90.85% of the respondents think that the increase in efficiency should be done through recycling, 74.62% of the respondents believe that it should be done through resources’ substitution and 73.09% of the respondents think it should be done through using less resources.
The general trend is that higher life standards become less sustainable. As always, population’s growth has a marked influence on the level of consumption and resources’ use [
31]. The sustainability goal is to elevate the global standard of living, without increasing the use of resources beyond the global sustainability level, which means not to exceed the consumption “of a planet”.
3.6. Business Models in CE
Of respondents, 83.59% agree or strongly agree that business models based on reuse are beneficial for the economy. In addition, 87.27% of the respondents agree or strongly agree that business models based on recycling are beneficial for the economy.
Of respondents, 88.60% agree or strongly agree that business models based on reuse are beneficial for the environment. In addition, 90.75% of the respondents agree or strongly agree that business models based on recycling are beneficial for the environment.
Measures such as eco-design, waste prevention and re-use can bring companies EU-wide net savings of up to EUR 604 billion or 8% of the annual turnover, reducing, at the same time, the total annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2%–4% [
32].
Overall, the implementation of additional measures to increase the productivity of resources with 30% by 2030 could lead to an increase in GDP by nearly 1%, creating, at the same time, over 2 million jobs in addition to the usual economic scenario [
33,
34].
A sustainable business is any organization that engages itself in beneficial ways in the life of the society, participates in green or environmentally friendly activities, in order to ensure that all processes, products and manufacturing activities adequately address the current environmental issues and, at the same time, makes a profit. In other words, a sustainable business “meets the needs of the present world, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [
35].
A very important initiative of a sustainable business is to eliminate or reduce its negative impact on the environment, which can be caused by harmful chemicals, materials, and waste generated through the manufacturing processes of products and services [
36].
The impact of such human activities, as regards the amount of greenhouse gases produced, can be measured in units of carbon dioxide and is referred to as carbon footprint. Sustainable business practices may include the analysis of processes, in order to eliminate or recycle waste, making all products recyclable, as well as the replacing the non-renewable resources by alternative energies.
The European legislative proposals, to which Romania aligned, regarding waste in general, but also waste derived from packaging, establish clear objectives for waste reduction and draw long-term directions for the reintroduction of waste materials in the economic circuit. The key objectives of these proposals include: a common target, at the EU level, for recycling the municipal waste, of 65% by 2030, a common target, at EU level, for packaging waste recycling, of 75%, in the same year.