Apartments.com: Majority of Renters Recycle

Do you live in a green apartment community? A recent Apartments.com survey indicates more than sixty-three percent of survey respondents who live in an apartment community recycle regularly. In comparison, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that 32 percent of the entire U.S. population participates in recycling programs.

Of the renters who do recycle, fifty percent live in an apartment community that offers a recycling program for residents. Property managers and apartment owners support environmental issues in numerous ways as survey respondents indicate the following eco-friendly products and services are provided by management companies: recycling bins and receptacles (34 percent), energy efficient lighting (10 pecent), water saving showers and fixtures (10 percent ) and insulation in windows and doors (8 percent).

Environmentally friendly communities are in high demand as twenty-six percent of renters state they would pay more in rent to live in a building that makes efforts to conserve and recycle. When asked to choose between identical apartments with the same monthly rent, one being eco-friendly and the other not, more than sixty-four percent of renters would choose the "green" apartment.

A significant number of survey respondents indicate that they personally make conservation efforts regardless of the presence of a formal recycling program within their rental community. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents recycle plastic, fifty-seven percent indicate that they use energy efficient light bulbs, fifty-six percent recycle paper, aluminum and glass and forty-six percent use a timer to set their heating/air conditioning to run only while someone is home.

For more information on the survey, check out the Apartments.com press release.