Understanding Household Waste Separation Behaviour: Testing the Roles of Moral, Past Experience, and Perceived Policy Effectiveness within the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

Due to the increasing waste generation over the years in China, there is an urgent need to addressing this major problem by implementing effective household waste separation programs. Although past studies have tried to explain the waste behaviour from social and psychological motivations, there is little understanding as to the impact of individual moral obligation and past experience on forming waste separating intention. The aim of this study is to investigate key determinants influencing household waste separation intention and behaviour. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model, we designed a survey questionnaire by taking account of determinants including residents' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, moral obligation, past behaviour, and demographic factors, with the prediction of household waste separation behaviour in mind. After obtaining 628 valid questionnaires from households in the city of Hangzhou, the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of each construct. The results indicate that subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, past behaviour and intention significantly predict household waste separation behaviour, with past behaviour being the most significant construct to predict individuals' intention and behaviour. Additional analysis on the moderating effect of different kinds of people in terms of their genders, ages, income levels and perceived policy effectiveness, to further evoke household waste separation behaviours is also discussed. The findings suggest insightful future policies that can focus on residents' habit formation by providing the convenient location of waste separation and collection facilities, encouraging market-driven recycling programs and traders, promoting community campaigns and education which help residents to form favourable habits for protecting the environment.

Socio-Spatial Factors Affecting Household Recycling in Townhouses in Pretoria, South Africa

“…Although Tonglet et al [18] and Xu et al [21] suggest the inclusion of additional independent constructs, such as moral norm, past experience and perceived consequences of recycling, we found the original framework of the TPB sufficient to address our main question about the relative effects of social as opposed to spatial and physical factors. Thus, the core constructs of 'attitude', 'social norm', and 'PBC' allowed sufficient differentiation between the effects of social as opposed to spatial and physical factors, provided we were able to adopt a wider conceptualisation of PBC to include situational factors such as storage space and access to recycling facilities [23].…”

“…Ajzen's [17] Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is a widely used framework for studying environmental behaviour, including recycling [18][19][20][21]. According to the TPB, three factors (independent constructs) guide human behaviour (the dependent construct), including 'attitude' towards a certain behaviour (i.e., beliefs about the consequences of performing the behaviour), 'subjective norm' (i.e., perception of others' expectations of one to perform the behaviour, notably social pressure), and 'perceived behavioural control' (PBC) (i.e., how much control one believes one has to perform the behaviour, notably the ability to perform the behaviour).…”

The Effect of a Weekly Comingled Kerbside Collection Service on Household Recycling in a Gated Community in Pretoria, South Africa

“…Some studies on recycling include additional determinants, such as moral norm, past experience and perceived consequences of recycling [25,28]. We found the original framework of the TPB sufficient to address our main question about the overall effect of a recycling service on recycling behaviour in a security development.…”

“…We used Ajzen's [24] well-known Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a theoretical framework considering its applicability to environmental behaviour, especially recycling [25][26][27][28]. According to the TPB, there are three determinants of behaviour, including 'attitude' towards the behaviour (i.e., perceptions about the consequences of performing the behaviour), 'subjective norm' (i.e., perceptions of others' expectations to perform the behaviour, notably social pressure), and 'perceived behavioural control' (PBC) (i.e., perceptions of how much control one has to perform the behaviour, notably the ability to perform the behaviour).…”

The impact of moral intelligence on green purchase intention

“…In other words, a person's understanding of good and bad can lead them to make either a positive of negative assessment of which behavior to show (Yuang et al, 2016). Xu et al (2017) explain that moral factors often encourage people to be kind to the environment. Bozaci (2014) carried out research which revealed a close connection between morality and green consumption behaviors.…”