CONSUMER EVALUATION OF RECYCLED PRODUCTS

Despite the tremendous growth of recycled and recyclable products in recent years, there exists very little research on how consumers evaluate such products. An experiment was conducted to examine whether consumers' reactions to recycled products is product specific and cognitive or affective and not product specific. Results indicated that consumers are favorably influenced by the presence of recycled material regardless of the type of product, thus supporting an affective evaluation process. Results also indicated that the positive effects of recycling held only for established brands and not for new brands. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.