Factors Influencing Household Recycling Behavior

Abstract

To investigate factors encouraging or deterring recycling, telephone interviews were used to study recycling behavior, attitudes, and knowledge of 221 randomly selected adults in a suburban city that had begun a citywide curbside recycling program within the past year. Approximately 40% reported participation in the curbside recycling program, and nearly 20% more claimed that their household had been recycling in other ways. Most demographic variables did not predict participation in the curbside recycling program, nor did general environmental attitudes and behaviors, though simple conservation knowledge did. The main significant predictors of curbside recycling were a few demographic variables, attitudes, and behavioral variables that pertained specifically to recycling. As predicted, factor analyses showed that there was no general factor underlying (a) various environmental attitudes and (b) various environmental behaviors, all of which might seem on an a priori basis to be related. Implications of the findings for understanding and promoting curbside recycling are discussed.

Recycling Behaviour Among Householders: Synthesizing Determinants Via a Meta-analysis

“…The authors pointed out that householders may not recycle due to the sheer effort required to overcome high personal barriers. Similarly, Vining and Ebero [80] and Oskamp et al [89] reported time to be a major effort and important inconvenience factor in performing recycling behaviour, while economists also underline the high opportunity cost of time in their studies [38]. Conversely, only Hornik et al [7] do not report any significant dependence between personal effort and recycling behaviour.…”

Resident Knowledge and Willingness to Engage in Waste Management in Delhi, India

“…It has been argued that higher levels of environmentally relevant knowledge play a significant role in modifying environmental behavior [33,34]. Schahn and Holzer [35] follow two definitions of knowledge in their research on recycling: abstract knowledge (AK), which focuses on awareness of general environmental issues, and concrete knowledge (CK), which evaluates awareness of local services, for example, recycling services [36].…”

Determinants of Recycling Behaviour in Tioman Island

“…A positive relationship between attitudes and behavior has been indicated in some cases (Kallgren and Wood, 1986;McGuiness et al, 1977;Tilikidou, 2001), whilst no relationship was found in others (Ebreo and Vining, 1994;Oskamp et al, 1991). However, there is an agreement in the literature that specific recycling attitudes are better predictors than are general pro-environmental attitudes (Martin and Siminitras, 1995;Schlegelmilch et al, 1996;Shrum et al, 2001).…”