How Do Money and Time Restrictions Influence Self-Constraining Behavior in Polluting the Commons?

Abstract

Commons are resources shared by a group of people, and are studied using the commons dilemma paradigm. Despite Hardin's prediction that the only sustainable management options are government regulation or private ownership, sustainable commons management has been observed with unregulated groups; however, global commons such as the atmosphere and oceans seem to conform to the prediction of "tragedy" because self-interests among users lead to degradation of the commons through overuse. The present study examined whether the factors of commons type (consumption or waste disposal) and cost (money or time) influence individual self-constraint in harvesting/polluting decisions to prolong the longevity of the shared resource, in the absence of social communication. Results indicate an interaction of the two factors: Individual self-constraint was greatest with the combination of disposal commons and time cost. These findings suggest that creative strategies to manage global commons may be possible, at least for waste-disposal commons.

Time as a Subject in Sustainable Consumption

“…Some have discussed time-use as the main time related issue [14,19,20,26,28], and some have involved this category in marginal arguments [13,15,17,18,27,30]. The time of use and patterns of activities also have appeared as the main topic [13][14][15]19] as well as the marginal one [20,[26][27][28]. The non-intended result of the time saving or the "time related rebound effect" was mainly discussed by Buhl et al [17], Buhl and Acosta [18], and Jalas [19].…”

“…However, some other authors also have provided marginal arguments on that [15,20,29]. Although time pressure has not been the main subject in any of the reviewed articles, the authors were concerned about its role in consumption [13,14,18,20,[26][27][28][29]. Hansen [29] and Pullinger [30] were focused on time-related well-being.…”

“…In the next step, the abstracts of the materials were reviewed, and 36 articles within which "time" was a subject matter were selected. Finally, and after assessing the primary selection of articles, 12 articles [13][14][15][17][18][19][20][26][27][28][29][30], which contained some debates and arguments on the roles and uses of the concept of time, were picked for content analysis.…”

“…Moreover, consumption is analyzed as an activity with two components: time and commodity [28]. According to Arbuthnott and Scerbe [26] it is important to find the best combination of money or time cost and desired activities for getting the best result to mitigate environmental issues. However, it is not clear how time versus money is evaluated and what kind of relationship is assumed to exist between these two costs.…”

“…Time is one of the necessary inputs in consumption activity and a lack of time leads to spending more money and making not-sustainable decisions [14]. For a sustainable performance, people spend more money or much time [26]. Regarding the limitation of time compared to the plentifulness of the materials, Cogoy [28] explains the necessity of the material-intensity of consumption and suggests that changing the balance of time and material in consump-tion activity leads to a decrease in the environmental consequences of the consumption.…”