Saving money as a part , saving the earth as THE WHOLE

1. Saving money as a part , saving the earth as THE WHOLE

2. Sub - topic:Consumer behaviour on buying and bringing bottles of water

3. Assumption on consumer behaviour

4. Which one do you prefer? Specified water bottle? Water bottle?

5. Background • Why do we choose this topic? • In this project, we are going to study the consumer behavior of buying bottles of water among Hong Kong students.  This consumer behavior has not been studied by any other groups, which is why we want to choose this topic. Besides, the number of consumers which regularly consume bottles of water has kept increasing but this consumer behavior has not been commonly aware or noticed by the public, In fact it is closely related to our daily lives.  As buying bottles of water is not only a kind of economic problem, but also a problem related to environmental conservation, that is why we choose to study this consumer behavior.What is the meaning of doing this project? • We hope the project can arouse people’s attention to environmental conservation. People should recognize their own responsibility to the earth, and know what they should do to protect her. We hope they could change their buying behavior to saving more resources, including the buying water behavior. Although it seems there is still a large amount of drinkable water on the earth, the good time won’t last if we don’t take action now. • Also, we expect people would consider more on methods of using money. There is a wiser and sensible way to spend their money other than keep buying water. • What are we trying to explain? • We hop people can consider more on their trail habits, like the habit of buying water. Small yet unhealthy habits can lead to consequences affecting our living planet. Many bottles are wasted as people keep buying and buying water. But it is not the most important point. The most important is that most of the people don’t have the consciousness to conserve the environment. Why do people buy water instead of bringing water? Although a bottle of water is very cheap, it turns out to be a large sum of money if you accumulate it . Buying water actually is like wasting money.What have we already known before starting the report? Consumer behavior • Before we start doing our report, we observe that there are lots of classmates buying water in bottle.  Usually, most of them will buy one to two bottles of water per day. Their major reason of buying water is because they do not want to bring water from their home to school (more convenient). They think water is very heavy. Also, they think water bough has strict control on quality and it is cleaner than water sources.  Besides, the per unit price of bottles of water is quite low, it just cost around $2-3. Most of them have had formed such habit since they were in lower secondary forms. • Impact on environment • In fact, the consumer behavior of buying water will lead to a series of environmental problems.  If everyone buys a bottle of water per day and after they finish, they throw the plastic bottles into bins directly, can you imagine how many plastic water bottles will be created?  What’s more, not everyone will dispose the plastic bottles into recycle bind. What they usually do is put them into ordinary rubbish bins, which will definitely raise the burden for both landfills and our nature.  For plastic, it is very difficult for nature to decompose, the time spending on decomposing a plastic bottle may be more than 100 years.  During these periods of time, we need to find a place to deal with those plastic water bottles. In Hong Kong, there is not enough space in the landfills, so disposing water bottles will lead to a big environment problem. • Through this project, we hope we can understand more about teenagers’ consumption behaviors on water, and suggest some methods to alleviate the pressure we have put on nature, rebuilding nice, clean environment to all of us.

6. Groups we have interviewed ( based on 106 surveys ) Proportion on boys and girls Proportion on age groups

7. Proportion on people who buy or bring water

8. Consumer behaviour on buying bottles of water Reasons for buying water Money spent on buying water per day What people would deal with the bottles after finishing it

9. Consumer behaviour on bringing bottles of water Reasons for bringing water How long people would reuse the bottles of water What people would deal with the bottles after the reuse

10. HKMA David Li Kwok Po College香港管理專業協會李國寶中學 The phenomenon of buying and bring water我們正在調查有關自備水樽及買樽裝水的消費現象,有意請您填寫此問卷, 有助我們作進一步調查。此問卷是雙面影印,請支持環保!請放心填寫,資料只作統計之用,內容絕對保密!你的班別:_________ 性別:男/女1.你平日會自備水樽上學還是買樽裝水回校飲用?□樽裝水(請回笞第2-10條問題)□自備水(請回答第11-15條問題)□自備水外,同時也購買水飲用(請回答整份問卷)樽裝水:2.一天飲多少支水? □1-2支 □3-4支 □>5支3.你愛買哪個牌子的水?□Bonaqua □Watson □維他 □Meko □Evain □其他,如:____ 4.你為什麼會買這個牌子?□包裝美觀 □耐用 □平價 □比白開水更有營養 □其他,原因:___ 5.一天花多少錢在買水上?□$5以下 □$5-10 □$10以上6.為什麼不自備水?□忘記帶水 □浪費時間 □老套 □重 □其他, 原因:_____7.唱完水,你會如何處置水樽?□丟進普通垃圾筒 □放進回收筒 □循環再用 □其他,原因:_______ 8.你覺得買水而不自備水是不環保嗎?□是,會繼續買//不會繼續買 □否,原因:________ 9.會不會同時買多支水?□會 □不會10.會不會注意成份?□會 □不會

11. 自備水:11.平時用什麼樽盛裝水回校?□重用膠樽 □專用水樽(如Columbia,Nike等)12.為什麼自備水樽而不買水?□不想浪費金錢 □屋企水好飲□健康 □其他,原因:________________ _____________________13.你覺得買水是否一個不環保的行為?□是 □不是,原因:_____________ ___________________________14.若你是重用膠樽的話,你用一個樽大約用多久才棄置?□一星期 □一星期至兩星期 □兩星期以上15.你會如何處置用完的膠水樽?□丟進普通垃圾筒 □放進回收筒 □其他:_________________________謝謝你寶貴的意見!

12. Analysis and evaluation on the questionnaire results Analysis • At the end of 2007, we launched an interview and asked our schoolmates about their consumption behaviour of water. The 106 students are widely separated in all forms. • The results show that no. of students buying and bringing water is quite even, while more students choose to bring their own water to school instead. For the group of bringing water, most students think such habits can save money, and they will reuse the bottle for more than two weeks, We believe that they have had bought the special water bottles from sports centres. And they would dispose the bottles in to recycling bins after use. • For the group of buying water every day, more than 40% students think buying water is cheap, around one quarter of them thinks water is too heavy, that they are not willing to take them to school. More than half of students spends $5 or below each day, and they will throw them into rubbish bins when the day ends. Evaluation • The results are within our expectation. It is not surprising: Classmates’ carrying 3 to 6 bottles of water at one time is a common phenomenon in our class. There are usually more then 10 wasted bottles when we leave school, around 40% of us having such consumption habit. The below paragraphs are done by our painstaking effort. We are going to try to explain students’ behaviours in economics theories, and discuss the drawbacks on environment, which are in geographic terms.The analysis will be on the following pages.

13. Economics: • The two groups of students, one buying water to school, one bringing their own water, can be explained by “cost”. As we all know, cost is the highest valued option forgone. We have cost just because we have options in hands, no options, no choices, no cost is involved. Students can buy or bring water to school. As a maximizer, they will choose the option with the least cost. Those who choose to buy water, have a cost of alternative uses of money spent on other goods; while the cost of using water bottles is the money spent on buying water. • It is easy to calculate: water costs $2 per bottle. If a student buy one bottle per day, the monthly spending will be $46(assume there are 23 school days each month), and the annual fee will reach $460(9 months per school year)! On the other hand, if one brings water to school, or brings water bottles to school and refilling them by schools drinking water machine, their money cost is $0. (Exclusive money spent on buying water bottles). Tony Clarke said, in his book “Inside the Bottle” it is ten thousand more expensive in buying than bringing water. Then why are there many students willing to “waste” money on it? Why don’t they save the money and spend on buying books/ clothes instead? • Economics are used to explain one’s behaviour. Some students claim bringing water is too heavy, and the bottle consumes much space in school bags. This shows if those students bring water, they need to forgo the spaces for putting textbooks in, in which the cost is much higher. They are willing to substitute space and convenience for money spent on water. • Also, some think water bought is healthier than the one boiled at home. As most of them choose to buy water with brand-names, and those which claimed including special nutrients (I.e. minerals), they all have similarities: the market price ($3.5-5) is usually higher than the ordinary one ($2-2.5) and boiled at home ($0). It can be explained by “price”. Price is the maximum amount of money one is willing to pay at the margin, i.e. marginal use value. In this case, students are willing to pay high price for well-brand-water because “price indicates quality”. Due to information problem (in formation cost, e.g. don’t know where the source of water come from), they are willing to pay higher prices for better quality goods. • In addition, some students will buy water in bulk purchase, such as 6 bottles per time, in order to get the discount. Is it a kind of price discrimination? • Price discrimination (third degree) is the pricing practice, that a price-searcher sells the same good to different customers at different prices for reasons other than difference in costs. • In fact, such discount is not price discrimination. There is no separation among customers because all of them can enjoy the same discount if they purchase water in bulk. Water sold in bulk is just the same as in bottles. However, the price difference can be explained by the cost difference: water sold in bulk involve a smaller average cost then water sold in bottles, including a lower average fixed cost of operating the shops, marketing and administration (the salesperson). Thus, this is not an example of price discrimination. Despite of it, both customers and sellers gain.

14. Overall, though those students who buy water every day seems to be “weird’, their costs are actually lowered. But they are just a small group of people, most of the interviewees think bringing water won’t make the school bags full, the cost is much lower. • The results on the survey show that students do not show much care about how much they spent on buying water. They doubt if water is much useful in our lives, if it is much useful than a LV key ring. However, we observe that water is much cheaper than a LV product . Why there are extreme prices between them ? We can also express this in economic term. • The paradox of value can be used to explain. It is definitely not caused by irrational behavior. The paradox states that things (i.e. water) which have the higher value in use frequently have little or no value in exchange and those (i.e. keyring) which have a higher value in exchange frequently have little value in use. This problem arises from misinterpreting total use value (TUV) and marginal use value (MUV). • The price or exchange value of a good is determined by its relative scarcity and its MUV, not TUV. Even if water really commands a higher TUV, it may have a lower price, provided that the supply of water is relatively greater than a LV keyring. And if a LV keyring have a lower TUV, it may have a higher price , given that the supply of it is relatively small. Although water has a higher TUV and LV keyrings have a lower TVU, but at the margin, water in fact has lower MUV than LV key rings. Thus, water is cheaper than LV keyrings due to the relative supply and MUV. • Nevertheless, there is one thing we should bear in mind, is that the assumptions should be clearly specified. Firstly, the two goods are quantified by the same amount unit of measurement, characterized by identical demand curve. Secondly, price is equal to MUV and AEV. Thirdly, Even TUV of water is higher due to large quantity supplied, comparison of TEV between two goods is uncertain as TEV increase then decrease along demand curve. Finally, we can ignore MEV because it depends on elasticity.

15. Geography • If we use geographic angle evaluating students’ behaviour, surely it is a disaster to environment. Almost half of the interviewees (53) have a habit on buying water. Our school has around 750 students, if we hold the interviews in such large scale, we may predict that more than 375 bottles thrown per day, regardless of most people who will buy 2 bottles of water on average. • There are more than 500 schools in Hong Kong; the no. of daily dispose of water bottles will be disastrous. Imagine millions of wasted water bottles covering the landfills! • Those students buying water don’t have eco-awareness. They ignore the existence of recycling bins, putting them in to ordinary rubbish bins because of convenience. When asked if they would continue buying water, they even say “yes”. Water bottles are made of plastics. These by-products of crude oil are non-biodegradable. The producers won’t recollect them and refill them and sell to market. (But it is common in northern European countries like Finland) moreover, they usually won’t be pressed when they are dispose, their large volume can easily fill up the landfills in a short period of time. Recently, Hong Kong Government plans to build one more landfill in Sai Kung, which is part of the country park. Isn’t it irrational for us to forgo the specious nature just because of water bottles and our convenience? • Buying water may be unavoidable nowadays, when you are really thirsty, but you have no water in hand. However, it is absolutely not a healthy living style if the buying has become a habit. • It is good to see more than half of the interviewees prefer bringing water to school. They care about the environment. They see buying water as a habit Is a kind of eco-terrorism. It is not good to waste the-already-limited resources. They will buy a new water bottle only when they are broken or they have been used for a long time (the plastics will release harmful substances which may cause cancer). • Environmentally aware consumers are producing less waste by practicing the “3 Rs:” Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They are buying products that are less toxic or contain less packaging, using reusable containers and other reusable items, maintaining and repairing products, participating in recycling programs, and buying products made from recycled materials.

16. Actually, water bottles we are buying everyday don’t show any concerns on the 3Rs. source reduction means consuming and throwing away less. If we but bottle water everyday, are we directly increasing the waste? Surely we are. What we can do is to purchase durable, long-lasting goods( i.e. specified water bottle for long time used). They can have a longer life, or be used again after its original use. • Source reduction actually prevents the generation of waste in the first place, so it is the most preferred method of waste management and goes a long way toward protecting the environment. • Reusing products, when possible, is even better than recycling because the item does not need to be reprocessed before it can be used again.It’s good to reuse the bottles for even 1 or 2months ,but not a day. Saving money cost and saving the environment is much we concerned. • Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. In addition, it generates a host of environmental, financial, and social benefits. Materials that the water bottles may consist of glass, metal, plastic. Plastic, which is difficult to decompose and it releases poisonous gas when we burnt it. Is it worthy for us to do so? • Being a student, we are very lucky as drinkable water refill machines are installed on each floor. Even students drink up water, they can simply refill them, but no need to buy one and create one more piece of waste.

17. Evidence of increasing problem brought by water bottles 1) 製造盛載水的物料，包括塑膠、玻璃和鋁（飲料罐），當中又以塑膠最為普遍。塑膠為石油副產品，有不同類型，如PET、PP、PS、PC、PVC，瓶裝水的膠樽，多為PET。據統計，美國用於製造水樽的塑膠原料，每年約為150萬桶石油，足夠驅動10,000輛汽車行走一年，而全球每年製造膠水樽共消耗27萬公噸塑膠。 　 　雖然各地都有所謂膠樽回收，但統計顯示，單就美國而言，每年有多達86%的膠樽變成垃圾，當膠樽燃燒時，更會排放有毒的氯化氫和二噁英等物質，危害環境和健康。同時，從石油原物料到製造100萬噸塑膠瓶，便產生約73億噸溫室氣體，加劇全球暖化問題。 瓶裝水銷量節節上升 除了辦公室大量飲用以大膠瓶儲存的蒸餾水，以小膠樽盛載的瓶裝水亦開始進駐連水亦懶得燒的小家庭，更別說逛街、運動時隨時購買的小號瓶裝水，積少成多，每年全球瓶裝水的消耗量甚高，而且逐年遞升。2000年，全球瓶裝水的消耗量達到980億公升，短短5年，更躍升57%，於2004年，便達到1540億公升，差不多可以注滿香港最大的水塘萬宜水庫（最高儲存量約為2260億公升）。 　 在水源緊絀的中東地區，瓶裝水固然有市場，像阿拉伯聯合酋長國，然而，瓶裝水的消耗量和水源充沛與否，沒有必然關係，全球消耗最多的地區，都是淡水供應充足，供水系統完善，像消耗最多的美國。 　一些發展中國家，人口眾多，隨著經濟發展，追趕西方的生活模式，瓶裝水的銷量亦快速增長，像中國，自2000年起5年內，升幅已超過一倍。 Source:http://www.life123.org/site/?p=581

18. 2) Opinions on website Others opinions ( also from the website) -我地sch反而係日日排長龍等針水bor` ha!好少買水@@ -唔買水呀...自己帶水,出街買水感覺真係太哂錢,因為水係屋企免費有...所以萬一出街真係要買野飲,都寧願買一d止渴飲品唔買水(eg.烏龍茶)-我帶水 -我多數都唔會買水既-我隔離果個同學日日係學校買$4 1枝水 超曬錢...我係會帶空水樽的-因為學校入面有飲水機，費事整到書包重 -方便law-有時遲左起身,要趕車果陣 根本冇時間裝水 Source: http://www1.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=5975533&extra=page%3D3&page=1

19. Analysis on website opinions • The website opinions are mainly focus on the reason why people bring or buy water from shops or schools. According to the opinions, the opinions expressed are similar to the surveys we have done, such as inconvenient, heavy, wasteful, etc. This is a piece of evidence to confirm how consumer behave. • All those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In order to make all these bottles, manufactures use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months. Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle. • Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to disintegrate. • People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic. • People also concern about the wasteful of money. They do have cost on money spent on buying water. They place differently their marginal use value and cost on water. Some of them shows much concern on the environment. • In short, there are two groups of people supporting on buying and bringing water. Its seems that arguments between them are needed to be concerned.

20. Methods of extracting consumer’s surplus Using celebrities for promotion of their products, just like the Watsons. (consumers may have a chance to win a concert ticket if they buy Watson’s Water)By doing so, more consumers will be attracted and the sales quantities will be increased. Using celebrities for promotion of their products, just like the Watsons. (consumers may have a chance to win a concert ticket if they buy Watson’s Water) By doing so, more consumers will be attracted and the sales quantities will be increased.

22. Advertisement Analysis

23. Bottled at the Source.Our geologists discovered remote, protected locations with water of remarkable quality and purity... but that is only the first step. Other companies may truck their water from multiple sources. We, on the other hand, build our bottling plants right at the mountain source because it's the best way to bottle and protect CRYSTAL GEYSER® ALPINE SPRING WATER™'s freshness, purity and taste.Purified by Nature.The source of our pure spring water is located at one of our protected springs; Mt. Shasta and Olancha Peak in California, The Cherokee National Forest of Tennessee; Moultonborough, New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains in South, Carolina. CRYSTAL GEYSER ® ALPINE SPRING WATER ™ guarantees you freshness, purity and taste.European Water Standards.To our knowledge, CRYSTAL GEYSER ® ALPINE SPRING WATER ™ is the first U.S. spring water officially permitted in the European Union. It must be bottled at the source, and not trucked out in bulk tankers. We exceed these standards, and that is your guarantee of freshness, purity and taste. • The company emphasizes on the “difference” not only between its product and boiled water at home, but also other purified water brands. • The slogan “There is a difference” crafts deeply in consumer’s mind, making them believe they have to rush to buy their must-have product. • The consumer guide provided by the company is like a “fact sheet”, showing all benefits from drinking its brand. It may easily affect potential consumers as their “objective” consumer guide can actually boost their confidence on their brand. • All in all, it is surely an example of successful sales strategies.

24. Application • Lorraine’s I bring water to school every day, so I didn’t pay much attention on the prices of water in the past. I started to calculate how much I can save for not buying water at school and stores outside. I bring 500mL of water to school each day, and I refill once. So I need around 1000mL of water. At school, 750mL of water costs $5.5. by calculation, I can save at least $11 per day, which can used on buying an ice-cream cone with chocolate flavour instead! $55 saved per week, approximately $220 per month! Not a great amount? It will snowball into $2200 per school year! Err…I can pay a month of school fee… • Amanda’s Actually, buying water is really a silly way to waste money and destroy the earth. Bringing water doesn’t cost much, why don’t all the people do it like that? I think water bottles from stores and water from home do not have many differences, is it necessary to spend money on buying water?What are the people thinking about when they’re buying water? Do they really need the water or just do something they do everyday as usual? • Suen’s • Actually, I don’t like drinking water but I still don’t prefer buying water from shops. If I buy a water bottle everyday, $3.5 dollars per each and 30 days per month, I will have spent $105 a month on them. Then I will spend $1260 a year. It is not worthy to do so. Although water has a low exchange value, the value is positive and I do have cost on spending water. The alternative use of moneyspent on water can be the tutorial fee to me. I do worry about my academic results since I don’t have much time to have studying enough in HKALE. Money has a high value to me. I don’t think I would spend about a thousand dollars in return for hundreds of water bottles that each ought to be reused for a long time. • Vivian’s • I also have a habit of bringing my own bottle of water to school nearly every day, but sometimes, I may forget to bring it to school, so I need to buy a bottle of water in the tuck shop of our school, for one bottle of 700ML water, it cost $ 4.5. For a bottle of water (volume is same 700ML) a store outside our school just cost $2-3 dollars. If I forget to bring my bottle of water, I need to waste a few dollars to buy one. If every day I need to spend some money on buying water, I think this is a burden to me and it is also a burden for the environment.

25. Empathy • Lorraine’s Watching schoolmates rushing to tuck shops for quenching their thirst in the 10 minutes, I asked myself: Why don’t they use water refill machine instead? There was a long queue in front of the tuck shop; but you need not queue up and everyone’s free to have a zip from the machine. What a curious phenomenon it is! However, when I asked them why not refilling water, some told me that they were suspicious on refill water’s quality. Indeed, I’ve met several times with watching yellowish water running out from the machine. Dirty enough, right? But bringing water to school can save $4.5! (Cost of buying a bottle) Also, we can save one whole recess to do something else! I am a constant “water bringer”, and I see no weirdness in it. Some may argue that it’s too heavy to carry water to school, but I think a bottle doesn’t increase much weight for schoolbags! Shouldn’t we drink our own water, and enjoy our recess, such as playing ball games or have a nice chat with friends, but not queue annoyingly at the tuck shop? • Suen’s • Don’t you think buying water from shops would destroy the environment? I do concern the place we are living in. I always see there are many water bottles in the bin in my classroom after school. Even on the streets, restaurants or anywhere else, there are different kinds of dumped bottles. Although recycling bins has set for us, there is no means to increase them continually. Source reduction is the most important thing we should do and we must do. No one wants to increase a number of landfills and no one loves living in such a disgusting place. Also, what we spent is taking from our parents, I mean the pocket money, don’t we know how hard our parents earn it? I don’t want to be a “wasteful monster”, do you? • Vivian’s • “A bottle of water do not cost you much money, it is only $4-5 dollars. “said by some interviewers. Actually a bottle of water which cost $4-5 dollars does not cost much, but have they thought about the amount that they accumulated from buying water every day? In fact, that amount is quite huge and by observing their behaviour, I know that they are poor at managing their pocket money, as they can bring their own bottle of water or bring a bottle back to school and refill water, rather than wasting money to buy water.

26. Self-reflection • Lorraine’s Before doing the project, it was no surprises to me seeing my schoolmates have the habit of buying water. But after finishing it, I am quite shocked by the amount of money that could be saved if they change to bring water instead! I’ve never followed suit, because I know there are still other ways gaining identification in the peer group. What’s more, it will indeed bring harm to the environment! If everyone dumps one plastic bottle every day, how many landfills are needed to be crammed with all plastic wastes which, are meant to be reused? Stop damaging our environment, stop buying water, start bringing water now! • Amanda’s Although buying or bringing water behavior is really some kind of tiny thing, we should not neglect this tiny but important thing. Some people around me buy water everyday, even buy more than one bottle. I cannot accept this behavior, not because they’re wasting their money. It is because I find they don’t respect the water and the water bottle. Every bottle and water seems like it has its own life. I think we should reuse the bottle to show our respect to it. We should not be so arrogant. We are human being and cannot live without these small things and other resources. We should treasure all the resources on the earth and make good use of it. • Suen’s • I must have learnt a lot from this project. Indeed, it is not an easy task for me. There are many difficulties when I was doing the project. I have almost spent days and nightson searching the required information. For the evidence part, I even couldn’t find any related news from the printed newspapers. The Apple Daily, South Morning China Post and The Standard didn’t have any related news forus recently. And for the some parts of analysis, I encountered the problem that classifying the groups I need. Finally, I can only search for two old “news” online to express the main idea of the project . I have also used the method of pressing ’Print screen’ to copy the related shot taught by my sister. Hopefully, this project can be used to arouse people to concern our environment. • Vivian’s • After doing this project, I become more aware on the issue of environmental conservation. Based on our observation of students buying water, we know there is a trend that more and more people have a habit on buying ready-to-drink water and all of us know that it is not good to develop such habit and we hope that we can change their habit and enhance their concept of environmental friendly and hope they will change their habit bit by bit.

27. End Done BY: LORRAINE LEE SUEN NG VIVIAN LEE AMANDA LO

28. References: http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/drop-series3.jpg www.flickr.com www.msnbc.msn.com http://lotusdonovan.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html www.cs.cornell.edu www.crystalgeyserasw.com