Ecologically Concerned Consumers: Who Are They?

much solid waste as manufacturing does.1 Numerous consumer products, such as automobiles, laundry detergents, glass and aluminum containers, pesticides, and fertilizers, have been identified as significant contributors to environmental deterioration.2 Whether marketers like it or not, they are increasingly being caught in an ecology/ market choice controversy that is already affecting the way many goods and services are marketed. At the same time, public policy makers are under greater pressure to define their role in coping with the problem. A key factor in the controversy is the consumer, whose personal consumption decisions can help maintain the environment or contribute to its deterioration.