Disposal of the Coffee Cups

Rationale

The topic of the research is “Disposal of the Coffee Cups”. The selected research topic is justified as it will create an awareness of social sustainability, environmental rationality, and social accountability among the students of Leicester University. According to Abdullah et al., (2019), the lack of appropriate discarding of coffee cups in University Precincts can hamper the environmental accountability and hygiene of the entire campus. Plastic lid and cardboard sleeves are used in the making of discarding coffee cups. Therefore, appropriate discarding is important for maintaining socio-environmental accountability and hygiene of the campus. Every student is responsible for maintaining socio-environmental accountability and hygiene of the campus, who loves to drink coffee in the discarding cups. Consequently, the conduction of this research is defensible and rationale as it will help the social impact team to generate consciousness among the university students. This research is also rationale because the social impact team will become successful in addressing the sustainability, pollution, and hygiene issues on the university campuses. In addition, this research is also rationale because this investigative study will promote the UN sustainability goals regarding environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability can be maintained through proper recycling of wastages, proper disposal of the wastages, and limited carbon emission. These are UN sustainability goals. Conduction of this research will give a valuable platform to the Social Impact Team to create awareness of UN sustainability goals among the stakeholders of the university. Sufficient investigation on the necessity of appropriate discarding of coffee cups is not available. This is considered to be a major research gap and problem of this research. Therefore, the conduction of this research is extremely justified.

Topic 5: Sustainability and Governance

Aim

Here the major aim of the study is to evaluate the waste handling behaviour of the students of Leicester University and identify the level of engagement of the students in the recycling practices of the coffee cups on the main campus of the university.

SMART Research Objectives

• To explore the perception of the enrolled students of Leicester University regarding the recycling of the coffee cups on the main university campus.
• To measure the number of postgraduate and undergraduate students of the university, having knowledge on effective recycling of the coffee cups on the main university campus.
• To explore how the postgraduate and undergraduate students of the university give value to the environmental sustainability and consciousness regarding handling and recycling of the coffee cups on the main university campus.
• To develop effective motivational elements that can drive the postgraduate and undergraduate students of the university to get engaged with the waste handling and recycling activities of the coffee cups on the main university campus.
• The timely objective is to develop solutions to some waste handling and recycling problems within a particular time period in order to complete the research within the mentioned deadline.

Research Design

Appropriate selection of research design allows a researcher to collect desired information to meet the created objectives. Research design is divided into two segments, such as exploratory design and conclusive design (Iovino and Tsitsianis, 2020). The exploratory design generally offers insights into an understanding and determination of the characteristics of the marketing research phenomena, where necessary information is loosely defined. On the other hand, the conclusive research design is a specific phenomenon, which tests certain hypotheses in order to investigate some specific relationships.

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Looking into the objectives of the research, it will be important to consider exploratory research design. Generally, exploratory research design tries to explore and understand the perceptions and perspectives of the target samples in research work (Lee et al., 2020). In this research work, the researcher is majorly exploring and understanding the attitudes, behaviour, perception, and perspectives of the university students towards the recycling and proper disposal of the coffee cups. Considering the nature of these objectives, the adoption of exploratory research design is highly justified.

Paradigm of Research

The research paradigm is segmented into two major research methods, such as qualitative research paradigm and quantitative research paradigm. The qualitative research paradigm is generally dominated by the constructive approach. Contrariwise, the quantitative research paradigm is dominated by scientific research. The qualitative research method is featured with inductive views, interpretivism epistemology, and constructive ontology (Kumar, 2020). Generally, qualitative methodology gives emphasis on the texts or words rather than the numbers. On the other hand, the quantitative research method is featured with the objectivist ontology, deductive reasoning, and positivist epistemology. Most importantly, quantitative methodology emphasizes numbers rather than words or texts.

The major of the study is to evaluate the position of Leicester University’s students on the management and recycling of coffee cups. As per the purposes, motivations, perceptions, understanding, perspectives, attitudes, and behaviours of the students need to be considered to achieve the aim. Therefore, the views of the students of the university should be taken down in the form of texts or transcripts or words. The scope of numbers and statistics is questionable. Inductive views and reasoning are required here to achieve the objectives (Sakyi et al., 2020). Therefore, the reasoning and views of the university students will be collected depending on the nature of the study and objectives. Hence, consideration of the qualitative research method is greatly defensible.

Organisational Strategy

Sampling Technique

There are two sampling techniques, as probability sampling technique and the non-probability sampling technique. In the probability sampling technique, individuals in which the population members have a known probability or chance of being nominated into the sample (Eisend and Kuss, 2019). In non-probability sampling, individuals in which not all the members of the population have a known probability of being selected.

In this particular research work, the non-probability sampling method is selected as the target samples are the students of Leicester University, who consume coffee in discarding cups. Not all the students of the university are being selected (Smyth, 2020). Moreover, the qualitative methodology has been selected in this research. Therefore, deliberation of the non-probability sampling technique is the right approach in this investigation work.

Data Collection

There are two kinds of data collection methods like primary method and secondary method. The secondary method is none other than the collection of data through existing data resources or data banks, such as academic textbooks, online journals, online articles, and different industry articles (Patnaik, 2019). The secondary method is also known as desk research activities. In the primary method, the data generally originates by the researchers in order to particularly address the research problems.

In this particular study, the major problem or gap of the research is the unavailability of sufficient secondary information or previous data regarding the perceptions of the students regarding the use of discarded coffee cups on the university campus. Hence, consideration of the secondary method cannot actually help in achieving the objectives as the researcher has to address the research gap (Gupta et al., 2019). Therefore, consideration of the primary data collection method is highly justified.

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Procedure of doing Research

In terms of the research procedure, the researcher here is entitled to select the primary data collection method and qualitative research method. The researcher here will collect the information from the students of Leicester University by observing their views, perceptions, attitudes, behaviours, perspectives, and words (Smyth, 2020). Most importantly, the statements or observations of the students of Leicester University are collected in a non-standardised and qualitative manner.

The qualitative interview process is considered in this study work to collect the information from the target samples. The reason behind the consideration of qualitative interviews needs to be discussed. For this, the characteristics of the qualitative interview need to be evaluated. The qualitative interview can be considered by the researchers when the understanding level of the participants on a particular issue is important. (Beerbaum, 2019) Moreover, the qualitative interview process can be implemented when a particular issue is too complex and too rich to be grasped by the survey or questionnaire method. In addition, the qualitative interview method can be applied when research believe that the knowledge, experience, views, and perceptions of the respondents are social realities and meaningful properties. Lastly, the qualitative interview method can be applied when a researcher believes that deep interaction with the respondents can definitely help to generate relevant information to achieve the objectives.

Looking into the characteristics of the qualitative interview process, it will be justified for the researcher of this study to select the qualitative interview method. First of all, the adopted research method is a qualitative method (Ghauri et al., 2020). Secondly, the adopted data collection method is the primary method. Thirdly, the researcher believes that the interaction with the respondents will significantly help here to generate important information and meet the objectives.

Rationale of Data Analysis

The information is collected through a written transcription technique and 10 students have been interviewed. The interview results of almost all the students are similar in nature. Hence, the interview transcript of a student is provided in the appendix as an example. As the qualitative method is applied in this research, therefore, consideration of the qualitative interview as a data analysis technique is highly justified (Patnaik, 2019). The data will be collected manually and face-to-face interaction will be the mode of the collection. Looking into the nature of the objectives and characteristics of the research, an observational analysis method will be applied to analyse the collected data. This is rationale because the views, behaviours, and perceptions of the respondents should be considered.

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Findings and Discussion

As the researcher has selected a qualitative interview method, 10 face-to-face interviews have been conducted in which the responses of all the respondents are almost similar. Most importantly, the respondents are the students of Leicester University, who consume coffee in the discarding coffee cups. The transcript of one of the interviews has been attached in the appendix part. Now, the findings and discussion of that particular qualitative interview have been provided below.

Findings

It is clear from the interview transcript that the particular interviewee used to drink coffee thrice a week. Most importantly, it is identified from the responses of the respondent that he has a little bit of understanding of recycling coffee cups. He also has replied that media platforms and different news articles have created some awareness on recycling coffee cups.

The interviewee also has expressed that the family members and friends are highly concerned about environmental accountability. The respondent has told that family members and friends are always concerned about the low emission of carbon and environmental accountability. From them, the respondent has somehow gained knowledge regarding the importance of recycling coffee cups in maintaining environmental accountability.

All the respondents have replied that the majority of their friends and family associates use recycled coffee cups or carry their own coffee cups with them to promote environmental accountability. The respondents also have revealed that these activities and behaviours of their friends and family members actually influence them to become socially responsible and environmentally responsible.

In terms of knowledge on recycled coffee cups and their impact on environmental accountability, it is identified from the responses that the respondents are slightly conscious about the contribution of the recycled coffee cups towards environmental accountability.

In terms of knowledge on this issue, the involved students in the qualitative interview process have stated that they are fully aware of the classification of the coffee cups and the growing importance of recycled coffee cups in environmental accountability across the United Kingdom.

As per the views of all the respondents, the Government of the United Kingdom needs to be responsible for the positive intervention. As per some respondents, the Government of the United Kingdom should do a good job regarding garbage separation and garbage collection. As per their opinion, government interventions should be considered in the university campus to ensure proper discarding of the recycled coffee cups in order to keep the campus clean and free.

In terms of the degree of the intervention, the respondents have replied that government should play an active role in the policy development activities so that the universities across the UK can maintain their environmental accountability as well as social accountability.

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In terms of sustainability activities of the United Kingdom, all the respondents have commonly replied that the country is doing a superior job regarding maintaining environmental accountability and hygiene in every university campus. They also have perceived that the new students in the universities should be aware of the policies as lack of awareness can result in a messy campus environment.

In terms of respondents’ country, people do not have a strong knowledge base regarding the positive impacts of recycled coffee cups on environmental accountability. As per their opinions, people need to be aware of the policies and attentions regarding the positive impacts of recycling and safe discarding in their respective countries.  They also think that some campaigning or promotional activities can help in improving the overall scenario. Last but not the least; the majority of the students believe that a recycling machine should be placed on the campus, which can be worked as a bin. This will help to maintain the hygiene of the university campus.

Discussion

It is identified from the responses that the majority of the international students reading at Leicester University are not effectively aware of environmental accountability policies. Different universities are also proactive in terms of the development and implementation of environmental accountability policies in order to keep the university campus clean, sustainable, and pollution-free. It is quite clear from the responses of different students that the people of the United Kingdom are highly conscious of the efficacy of recycled discarding cups. According to Triantafillopoulos and Koukoulas (2020), even the family members along with the friends of the international students based in the United Kingdom are highly aware of the efficacy of the uses of recycled cups in the United Kingdom.

The media platforms play a vital role in the United Kingdom to create awareness among people. The government, universities, and different administrative agencies in the United Kingdom have developed different kinds of policies and strategies to reduce the emission level of carbon, control the pollution level of the environment, and improve the accountability level of the society and environment. As per Banks et al., (2020), the media platforms like social media platforms, different digital media platforms, and news agencies are constantly promoting these policies and regulations to improve the awareness level of the public. Most importantly, consideration of these promotional activities is helping the students of different universities to become aware of the importance of environmental accountability and low carbon emission level. According to Sallaku et al., (2019), it is quite natural that the international students reading at Leicester University are somehow aware of the importance of the use of recycled coffee cups in universities to improve hygiene and environmental accountability.

The data findings have also addressed that some students of the university are not conscious about maintaining appropriate discarding of the coffee cups, which is hampering the hygiene and environmental accountability of the university campus. Most importantly, this is essential to state that majority of the international students of Leicester University come from Asian countries. As a view of Thongplew and Kotlakome (2019), the UK is more advanced in terms of following these environmental accountability policies compared to other Asian nations. Therefore, the lack of knowledge of these students can result in a messy atmosphere on the campus. Hence, proper awareness campaigns run by the university administration, proper government intervention regarding hygiene activities, and the use of proper machinery with advanced technology can help in creating a strong awareness among the students of Leicester University regarding the use of the appropriate discarding system of the coffee cups.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The attitudes, perceptions, and behaviour of all the target samples have clarified that they are somehow aware of the importance of appropriate discarding and recycling of the coffee cups in the university campus in order to help the administration of the universities to maintain sustainability and hygiene. Maintaining environmental accountability has become a social agenda in the United Kingdom and students of different universities are learning these things from the universities. Moreover, the government of the United Kingdom is also playing an important role in maintaining sustainability by creating a strong awareness. The awareness level of maintaining environmental accountability among the people of the UK is high, but this particular awareness level is low among the international students. The international students belong to Asian countries and other emerging countries in which the concept of sustainability and hygiene is not that advanced like the United Kingdom. Therefore, it is a vital aspect to educate all the students in the Universities of the United Kingdom to improve their awareness level regarding maintaining hygiene in the university campus and maintain environmental accountability.

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The community members, government, and university administrators have acknowledged the concept that proper discarding and recycling of coffee cups can help in maintaining hygiene. However, some of the international students of the Leicester University campus are not highly aware of recycling and sustainable discarding activities. Most importantly, lack of awareness and habit is the major reason behind this. Therefore, it is a vital aspect to state that the stakeholders of the university need to come together and consider this fact to educate and aware all the students regarding the use of recycled cups and proper discarding of the coffee cups on the university campus. Following recommendations, plans can help in overcoming these particular problems.

Recommendations

Three types of strategic recommendations should be considered by the administration of Leicester University, such as short-term strategic plans, mid-term strategic plans, and long-term strategic plans.

In terms of short-term strategic planning, the university administrators need to focus on active promotional activities to improve the awareness level of effective discarding and effective recycling among all the students. Most importantly, the digital media platforms and traditional platforms can be used by the university to promote this campaign. For example, the Facebook page of the university, website of the university, college magazines, and billboards can be used by the administration of Leicester University to improve the awareness level of all the students regarding recycling and discarding.

In terms of mid-term activities, government interventions are highly required. For example, the public administrative officers need to visit and supervise all the universities across the United Kingdom to determine whether the universities to taking the right measures or not. Inclusion of government in these campaigning and awareness activities will definitely help all the universities to improve the knowledge and awareness level of all the students to become socially and environmentally responsible. The university should approach the government to supervise in this regard to maintain hygiene and sustainability.

In terms of long-term activities, the administration of Leicester University should use different technologically advanced machinery so that the students can dumb the coffee cups in that machine in the cafeteria and those cups can automatically be recycled. Hence, the use of advanced technology is a long-term solution to this sustainability issue and all of these short, medium, as well as long-term approaches, should be considered.

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References

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