Consumo consciente na terceira idade

Abstract

In Brazil, the elderly represent 13% of the country's population. Considering this population a niche market and with a high degree of consumption, it becomes indispensable to understand what the elderly think about the environmental issue and how their perception affects consumption. This work sought to analyze the behavior of the elderly, with emphasis on the consumption of water, electricity, recycling and reverse logistics in the search for sustainable development. For this, a bibliographic research was first carried out on conscious consumption, consumption in the third age and environmental education in the third age. In order to reach the proposed goal, a study was carried out in an establishment in the city of São Gabriel - RS, where thirty consumers were interviewed in the elderly group. It was concluded that the majority of respondents are not clear about the concepts of sustainability, conscious consumption and sustainable development, as they have shown to be confused in their reports. This may be linked to the fact that such topics have come to be addressed more frequently recently and, most of the time, only in school and academic communities, with little publicity in the media.