No time for composting: Subjective time pressure as a barrier to citizen engagement in curbside composting

Majority of Rural Residents Compost Food Waste: Policy and Waste Management Implications for Rural Regions

“…Indeed, nearly 40% of respondents indicated they wouldn't use a curbside compost pickup program at all, and this was more likely among rural county respondents. However, while other studies have found demographic factors such as household size and income to be important predictors of use of curbside recycling or compost programs (Gamba and Oskamp, 1994;Miafodzyeva and Brandt, 2013;Wu et al, 2019), only age was a significant predictor of curbside compost interest in our study, a finding echoed by others (Wu et al, 2019). Furthermore, the majority of those that were interested in a curbside pickup program were unwilling to pay any additional costs.…”

“…For example, these results indicate that offering curbside compost service in more densely populated areas, with renters, among those currently utilizing garbage services, and not in areas where composting is possible and likely, would generate greater participation, and likely be more cost effective for haulers and municipalities offering the service. Should such efforts be undertaken, convenience of composting, information, and ease of use for participants, which reduces the time of the activity, is shown to increase volume and participation (Refsgaard and Magnussen, 2009;Karim Ghani et al, 2013;Miafodzyeva and Brandt, 2013;Bernstad, 2014;DiGiacomo et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019), which may be necessary to make the programs cost effective. However, these results also demonstrate that providing additional educational or infrastructure resources to facilitate effective backyard composting may be especially important in rural regions.…”

A consumer behaviour approach to analyse the sustainability of food purchasing

“…Our results are consistent with those of Lea & Worsley (2008) who found that older people were more likely to perform certain food-related environmental behaviours, such as green purchasing (Gilg et al, 2005;D'Souza et al, 2007;Aytekin & Çelik, 2017) or composting (Lea & Worsley, 2008;Wu et al, 2019). These behaviours can be explained by the habit acquired throughout their lives (Lea & Worsley, 2008), by a greater level of attention given to matters such as personal health and quality of life, and therefore to the environment, when one gets older (Sun et al, 2019), or by repeated exposure to environmental crises over their lifespans, which may lead to higher levels of environmental awareness (Otto & Kaiser, 2014).…”

“…For example, some studies discovered that older people are more devoted to making environmentally-friendly purchases (Samdahl & Robertson, 1989;Vining & Ebreo, 1990;Roberts, 1996;Gilg et al, 2005;Aytekin & Çelik, 2017;Shahsavar et al, 2020) or recycling packaging (Kelly et al, 2006;Martin et al, 2006;Saphores & Nixon, 2014) compared with younger individuals. Older people also engage with other food-related environmental behaviours such as composting, possibly because they have performed these behaviours throughout their lives and therefore continue to do so out of habit (Lea & Worsley, 2008;Wu et al, 2019).…”

“…Among the different environmental behaviours, one of the most commonly studied has been the recycling behaviour in homes. Three major categories of individual determinants of recycling behaviour have been identified (Guiot et al, 2019): internal dispositions like attitudes, values and the level of knowledge and concern about environmental problems (Tonglet et al, 2004;Knussen et al, 2004;Izagirre-Olaizola et al, 2015;Prakash & Pathak, 2017), external motivations such as social norms, financial incentives, and available information (Tonglet et al, 2004;Klaiman et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2019;Guiot et al, 2019) and demographic characteristics (Miliute-Plepiene et al, 2016;Guiot et al, 2019), such as gender or age.…”