Predicting the Intention to Sort Waste at Home in Rural Communities in Lebanon: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Lebanon have limited technical, economic, and social infrastructures to manage municipal solid waste properly. Understanding what motivates citizens to sort waste at home is paramount to designing effective, efficient, and equitable waste management interventions. Within the solid waste management project “RES-Q” in Southern Lebanon, we investigated the socio-cognitive predictors of waste sorting in a sample of 767 households from the targeted area using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Perceived behavioural control (β = 0.96, p < 0.001), perceived norms (β = −0.30, p < 0.001), and current behaviour (β = 0.06, p < 0.001) were the strongest predictors of intention; attitude toward separating waste was not a significant predictor (β = 0.04, p = 0.3881). Consequently, future behavioural interventions should build capability and opportunity to perform the behaviour before normalising it. For example, citizens should receive bins and bags to separate waste and be shown how to perform the behaviour and how easy and convenient it is to increase their behavioural control. In parallel, waste collection and treatment infrastructures must be in place so that citizens can see that sorting waste is a social norm. These actions will ensure the success of future behavioural interventions within the RES-Q project and beyond.

Exploring Food Waste at a Hospitality Staff Canteen With Meteorological Data

“…Within the hospitality and tourism literature, environmental behaviors have predominantly been explained by using theories such as the theory of planned behavior, values-beliefs-norms theory, norm activation theory, and neutralization theory (Agyeiwaah, 2020b; Bardus, & Massoud, 2022; Filimonau, Coşkun, et al (2021); Han, 2015). The decision to use SCT in this study is based on its two main tenets.…”

Teaching Social Marketing Using E-Service Learning Amidst Health and Humanitarian Crises: A Case Study from Lebanon

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What Factors Affect Farmers’ Levels of Domestic Waste Sorting Behavior? A Case Study from Shaanxi Province, China

“…Through regulations or policies, the government and organizations can establish a waste disposal policy system that limits rural people's free-riding behavior caused by the positive externalities of waste treatment [8]. Additionally, providing facilities and other convenient factors can directly promote the separation of domestic waste at the source [9,10]. Moreover, DWSB can be regarded as a pro-social and altruistic behavior involving positive externalities, which means that one sacrifices one's needs to achieve the well-being of others [11].…”