Survey

What motivates consumers to recycle their old clothing and electronics?

4.8k participants

We Asked Users

This survey was presented to a prequalified TCD audience in contextually relevant web articles and newsletters.

Survey participants self-selected two times, first when deciding to consume the host content and then again when deciding to participate in the survey.

Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?

Please select one.

  • 💰 Giving me money back
  • 👕 Letting me trade for new stuff
  • ⚡ Making it as easy as possible
  • 🗑️ Keeping my stuff out of landfills
Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?

Survey Results

Sample Size
Total: 4,793 Splits: Sustainability Focus:
923
Quality Focus:
3,431
Money Focus:
439
23%
18%
23%
36%
A. Giving me money back B. Letting me trade for new stuff C. Making it as easy as possible D. Keeping my stuff out of landfills

Aggregate Insights

The strong plurality of votes for "Keeping my stuff out of landfills" suggests that the environmental impacts of circular services are top of mind for a significant number of consumers.

Coupled with the results of a related A/B test that found strong attention and engagement preferences for a message about payment for old clothes, these poll results suggest either (a) that consumers care more about cash back in actual practice than they do in a hypothetical survey environment and/or (b) that underlying environmental motivations are most effectively activated by financial incentives.

Further polling could ask a similar question from a negative perspective — e.g., "What factor most often prevents you from recycling your old clothes and electronics?" — to test the hypothesis that a lack of financial incentives keeps consumers from acting on their theoretical environmental motivations in actual practice.

Contextual splits are determined by the topical focus and interests of the audience members participating in the survey, as described in more detail in the Insights and Methodolgy sections below.

Sample Size
Total: 4,793 Splits: Sustainability Focus:
923
Quality Focus:
3,431
Money Focus:
439
Sustainability Focus Quality Focus Money Focus
25% 22% 26%
21% 17% 21%
25% 22% 25%
29% 40% 28%
A. Giving me money back B. Letting me trade for new stuff C. Making it as easy as possible D. Keeping my stuff out of landfills

Split Insights

The plurality of votes in all three splits for "Keeping my stuff out of landfills" suggests that the environmental impact of circular programs is generally top of mind for consumers regardless of context.

The overperformance of "Keeping my stuff out of landfills" among the quality-focused audience suggests that even avid shoppers are attuned to and eager for solutions to the waste created by their shopping habits.

The overperformance of "Giving me money back" among the money-focused audience suggests that financial motivations to participate in circular programs can be influenced by contextual messaging.

Further polling could systematically explore motivations in different kinds of money-focused contexts — e.g., different magnitudes of cash back vs. store credit — to determine if certain kinds of financial incentives are more enticing than others.

Methodology

This poll was conducted among a prequalified TCD audience of likely adopters via distribution in 19 syndicated web articles. It received a total of 4,805 responses and generated segmented data across 3 primary contextual splits.

TCD surveys are embedded inline in contextually relevant web articles and newsletters. Survey participants self-select two times, first when deciding to consume the host content and then again when deciding to participate in the survey.

Contextual splits are determined by the topical focus and interests of the audience members participating in the survey. Split analysis explores the degree to which different messages — and the self-selected participants who seek them out — can shape consumer sentiment.

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