Consumers 'not concerned about the environment'

The statistics from the Centre for Retail Research Nottingham and commissioned by Visa found that 22.8% of customers believe clear climate change policies to be important, while in comparison 28.6% thought low prices are very important.

Moreover, 24.5% of consumers felt that it is not at all important retailers shared their concerns about the environment – only 8.8% said this is very important.

And 34.5% of the retailers polled said that it is unlikely customers go to a great deal of effort to purchase items without a lot of packaging, on top of the 44.2% who suggested shoppers do not bring their own reusable bags with them when buying products.

Consumers in turn appeared unwilling to contribute to waste-reduction programmes. Of those questioned, 30.3% said that they do not know anybody who takes a bag with them to stores, a higher amount than the 14.3% who contended that most of their acquaintances adopt this measure.

A number of retailers also stated that they are planning to inform consumers about environmental drives in an electronic fashion. In total, 46% said that information about future ethical plans is to be given out in email and internet form.