2.5.6 General Recycling AttitudeRecycling is extremely important for the environment; In the UK, recycling is estimated to save over 18 million tonnes of C02 per year; Furthermore, the 1,500 landfill sites based in the UK in 2001 produced a quarter of the UK's methane emissions (Recycle now, 2014). Recycling is therefore an important aspect of sustainable disposal, thanks to curbside collections, recycling has become convenient for the consumer; All recyclable items can be classified as waste and recycled accordingly. Shim (1995) and Joung (2013) investigated the links between a general recycling attitude and a consumer's environmental concerns and product disposal behaviors. Joung (2013) studied two groups, classified as materialistic and non-materialistic consumers, and found no difference in recycling participation between the two groups, although materialistic consumers had higher disposal scores and scores lower on environmental attitudes than non-materialistic consumers (Joung 2013). It could be suggested that a consumer's general recycling behavior is a poor indicator of their environmental attitude and other disposal behaviors; Shim (1995) suggests that consumers may “develop a recycling habit without much sensitivity toward environmentalism” (Shim 1995). Here, general recycling behaviors are a result of the convenience of recycling for the consumer rather than a representation of their environmental concerns. Hoskins (2013) describes the effect of recycling without environmental concerns; “Ultimately, recycling addresses the symptoms, not the cause – and gives consumers a false sense of security that the rate at which they consume and dispose of their clothes is entirely sustainable.” (Ho...... middle of document ......d concern for the environment." (Koch and Domina 1999). They state that people associated with concern for the environment are "white, young, well-educated and politically liberal” (Koch and Domina 1999), which might suggest that studies focused on young college consumers will not provide results that reflect the concerns and attitudes of the nation Joung and Park-Poaps (2013). focused their research on university students in the United States; their study of 232 people was based mainly on young people, white (87.5%), women (91.8%) (Joung and Park- Poaps, 2013) this could in turn mean that they learned similar consumption behaviors, as studies have shown that young children learn their attitudes and behaviors from peers and family members (Ward, 2013). 1974).