Determinants of Individuals’ E-Waste Recycling Decision: A Case Study from Romania

Abstract

Due to the increase of the amount of electrical and electronical equipment waste (e-waste), the understanding of individual consumers’ main decision triggers represents a key point in increasing the quantity of recycled e-waste. A series of studies from the literature have shown a positive relationship between the consumers’ attitude, awareness, self-efficacy, social norms, and their e-waste recycling intention, as well as the positive influence between the intention and the manifested behavior. Additional to these determinants, in the present study, the influence of social media was analyzed along with the actions taken by the government and nongovernmental organizations, with the purpose to include and to capture, as much as possible, a high amount of determinants in the e-waste recycling process. Nevertheless, the demographic or socio-economic variables, such as age, gender, income, education, number of family members, etc., have shown over time to have a contribution to predicting the consumers’ pro-recycling behavior. As on one side, in the research literature, the opinions related to which of the demographic or socio-economic factors can have an impact on the recycling behavior have been divided and, on another side, a series of researchers believe that the discrepancies in the findings of different studies can be due to culture in various countries, in this paper we conducted such an analysis with reference to the Romania’s case. The results have shown that the demographic variables, such as age and gender, can have a contribution to predicting residents’ pro-e-waste recycling behavior. Based on these findings, the policymakers can gain a better understanding of the e-waste recycling phenomenon and on its main triggers, with results in creating better policies for sustaining a proper e-waste managing system.

Consumers’ Behavior in Selective Waste Collection: A Case Study Regarding the Determinants from Romania

“…Sujata et al [37] analyzed the role of social media in consumers' recycling habits and established that social media usage has a positive, significant, but weak predictor of behavioral intention. The same results were obtained by Delcea et al [42].…”

“…Boldero [13] found a positive and significant impact of intention on selective collection behavior. Similar results were found in [36,42].…”

“…The authors showed that attitude is the third most significant factor influencing intention after social norms and environmental knowledge. A positive significant impact on the intention to recycle is found in Delcea et al [42]. Even in this case, there are studies that found that attitude does not have a significant impact on the intention of selective collection at source, such as the study conducted by Nguyen [25] on the inhabitants of Hanoi, Vietnam.…”

“…According to Boldero [13], convenience has a negative and significant impact on the selective collection intention. Ng [38] found a negative and significant influence on consumers' behavior, while Delcea et al [42] found a reduced positive influence on the behavior of e-waste recycling. Some of the differences in the approaches might be because in some studies the questions included in the questionnaires referred to the inconvenience rather than to the convenience of engaging in certain activities.…”

“…Government measures are represented by laws and regulations in the field of environmental protection to encourage the reduction of consumption [26]. Even for this determinant, the opinions do not emerge, with some of the authors finding a positive influence on the behavior [42], while others state that the impact is not significant [28].…”