An Exploratory Study on the Consequences of Individual Upcycling: Is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment

Kyungeun Sung Supervisors: Tim Cooper and Sarah Kettley

Sustainable Consumption Research Group School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment

An Exploratory Study on the Consequences of Individual Upcycling:

Is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?


Table of contents

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussions and conclusion


Introduction


Product attachment

The emotional bond experienced with a product (Schifferstein & Pelgrim, 2003)

Emerging concept for sustainable consumption (Cooper, 2004; Mugge, et al., 2004;

Van Hinte, 1997)

When attached to any product:

1. handle the product with care 2. postpone its replacement/disposal 3. repair it when it breaks down (Cramer, 2011; Ramirez, et al., 2010; Mugge, 2007;

van Hinte, 1997)

4. not necessarily requiring people to commit themselves to pro-environmental behaviour (van Nes, 2010)


Past studies on product attachment

Little attention to ‘everyday creativity’ activities

Consumers’ favourite or most cherished possessions (Schultz, et al., 1989;

Wallendorf & Arnould, 1988)

Mass-produced, ordinary consumer durables (Mugge, et al., 2010; 2006; 2005)

Product personalisation, mass customisation and participatory design as design strategies to increase product attachment sustainable consumption (Cramer, 2011; Mugge, et al., 2009; Fletcher, 2008; Chapman, 2005)


Individual upcycling

Creation or modification of any product out of used materials in an attempt to result in a product of higher quality or value than the compositional elements (Sung, et al., 2014)


Individual upcycling and product attachment

Individual upcycling: relevant to product attachment and product longevity

Utilise old products with an emotional bond

Creative, engaging user activity (1) self-expression; (2) group affiliation; (3) special memories; and (4) pleasure possible product attachment determinants (Mugge, et al., 2006)

likely to create strong product attachment product longevity


Increasing number of people who upcycle things

contemporary Maker Movement (Anderson, 2012; Lang, 2013)

readily available physical resources (e.g. Hackspaces)

shared digital resources (e.g. Instructables, Etsy)


Research need in individual upcycling

Despite:

Visible growth in practice/behaviour

Potential as a strategy for product longevity + sustainable consumption

Individual upcycling has not yet been fully investigated in terms of its relation to product attachment and product longevity.


Aims of the paper

1. Comparison between upcycled products with attachment and mass-produced products with the same functions:

Product attachment and its change over time

Expected/estimated product lifetime years

End-of-life options

2. Correlation between product attachment and consequences of product attachment for upcycled products with attachment


Method


Method

A questionnaire

23 UK-based consumers with upcycling experiences

between April and July 2014

Select up to 3 most emotionally attached, upcycled products

Fill in up to 3 questionnaires 44 questionnaires completed

Advertisement on Google groups/forums of public workshops

10 cities in 9 regions of England


Respondents

Total: 23 (13 direct response + 10 snowball)

Age: between 24 and 66 years old

Nationality: British (74%; 17); non-British (26%; 6)

Gender: male (65%; 15); female (35%; 8)

Occupation: (1) science and engineering (52%; 12); (2) art and design (30%;7); (3) other areas (heath service, business and management) or unemployed (17%; 4)


Measures

Product attachment + product attachment consequences: 7-point Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree”, 7 = “strongly agree)

Degree of product attachment: 9-point Likert scale (1 = “not at all”, 9 = “to a great extent”)

Change of product attachment over time: (1) faded away; (2) stayed the same; (3) got stronger

…


Analysis

Descriptive statistics

Correlational analysis (Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation)

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 22.0.


Results


Descriptive analysis: Product attachment and its consequences

N=44; 7-point Likert scale

High mean values of product care and expected product longevity

Low mean value of disposal tendency

Expected lifetime years: range between 1 and 50 years with mean value of 11.67 years (SD =13.23)

For the upcycled products with attachment


Descriptive analysis: Degree of product attachment over time

9-point Likert scale

N(upcycled) = 44

N(purchased) = 16

High degree of product attachment for the emotionally attached, upcycled products

Bigger portions for ‘faded away’ and ‘got stronger’ for the emotionally attached, upcycled products


Descriptive analysis: End-of-life options

Percentage (%)

N(upcycled) = 44

N(purchased) = 16

Most frequently answered option for the upcycled: give it to someone

Lower percentage for the upcycled: donate it somewhere + sell it to someone


Correlational analysis: Product attachment and its consequences For the upcycled products with attachment

Product attachment with irreplaceability Irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity Expected product longevity with expected product lifetime years

Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation


Discussions & Conclusion


Summary

When people are attached to their upcycled products:

1. Degree of product attachment: higher (before: 7.39; after: 6.64) than massed-produced (before: 3.25; after: 3.06)

2. Likely to make the product irreplaceable product care + expected longevity expected product lifetime years

3. Expected lifetime years longer: longer (11.67) than mass-produced (7.06)

4. More likely to give it to someone (55%) and disassemble and separate different materials for recycling (11%) than mass-produced

5. Less likely to sell it to someone (7%) or donate it somewhere (9%) than mass-produced


Limitations + future research

Limited sample

64% upcycled products with attachment has never been purchased diff. proportions of product categories validity + meaningfulness of the comparisons

Proportion of all upcycled products exhibiting meaningful levels of product attachment

possible rebound effect + actual environmental impact


Contributions

Individual upcycling has the potential to contribute towards sustainable production and consumption at the household level through strengthening product attachment


Thank you! Any question?

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