Understanding Public Environmental Awareness and Attitudes toward Circular Economy Transition in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) has been globally acknowledged as a national sustainable development (SD) strategy to confront resource shortages and environmental contamination challenges. Although public behaviors and lifestyles play an essential role in achieving sustainability, in developing countries, few studies explored the role of public awareness, attitudes, and lifestyles on CE transition. Thus, it is necessary to elicit public opinion to understand their awareness and attitude regarding CE strategy to determine obstacles to CE implementation and approaches of overcoming them. This study thus focuses on understanding public awareness and attitudes to CE transition in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to 402 residents of the Dammam Metropolitan Area. The results indicated that the respondents had little understanding of the CE concept due to limited awareness of the topic. However, they held an optimistic attitude towards trash separation and classified their trash as “can be sold”, “reused”, and “exchanged for a new one”. Furthermore, the respondents’ level of awareness regarding the CE transition is positively related to their level of education. In contrast, the inclination towards resource conservation and pro-environmental behavior positively correlates to the age demographic. This paper thus contributes to the empirical literature on CE transition by exploring the public awareness and attitudes towards its implementation in Saudi Arabia.

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“…The method was critical in reaching out to participants and distributing the questionnaires, especially to female respondents [21]. According to Saudi Arabia's cultural norms, there are rules that guide social interactions especially those between opposite sex and breaking these rules could offend the population being investigated [22], [23]. In addition, the survey was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period where field surveys have become problematic hence online survey was the best alternative [24].…”

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