What Affects Chinese Households’ Behavior in Sorting Solid Waste? A Case Study from Shanghai, Shenyang, and Chengdu

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to examine residents’ environmental behavior in sorting solid household waste, and to identify the integrative factors that contribute to their waste-separation cooperation and other related pro-environmental behaviors. This was achieved based on a questionnaire survey in Shenyang, Chengdu, and Shanghai. Methodologically, we applied a discrete choice model to examine whether individuals’ garbage sorting behaviors differ based on their characteristics, social attributes, residential circumstances, and environmental awareness, and whether these factors are correlated with individuals’ receptiveness to a refuse charge system, or to policies requiring garbage sorting. We further examined whether individuals’ garbage sorting behavior, their receptiveness to fee-based waste collection, and their receptiveness to policies requiring garbage sorting differ across areas. In this particular survey, we introduced a 16 item scale of pro-environmental behavior and a nine item scale of altruism to ascertain the ways in which internal motivational factors affect people’s environmentally conscious voluntary behavior. Overall, the present work is expected to contribute to an important understanding of the motivational forces and incentives behind human pro-environmental behavior and action. It also brings relevance to the analysis of moral solidarity in relation to the household waste disposal problems currently confronting us today.

I Am Better Than Others: Waste Management Policies and Self-Enhancement Bias

“…Participants estimated themselves to engage in more waste separation behavior and to have more positive attitudes toward waste separation than others. Consistent with prior studies on mandatory policies [7,10,13,18,20,36], we highlight the impact of a mandatory policy with supervision in reducing contamination in waste separation, which has implications for policymakers to design waste management strategies to achieve zero-waste goals.…”

“…The types of environmental regulation or regional policies (e.g., mandatory vs. voluntary) may lead to the illustration of different waste separation or recycling rates [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. For instance, the recycling rates range from 1% in Louisiana (USA) to 56.1% in North Kevesten (UK) where the EU's Landfill and Waste Framework directives were implemented [7,15].…”

Prediction of Municipal Waste Generation in Poland Using Neural Network Modeling

“…The amount of generated waste is affected by behavior and customs of residents. The personal traits include sex, marital status, education and age; the economic traits comprise education and employment; whereas the political influence involves acts and regulations related to waste management [36]. These traits are being collected by the majority of European statistical offices.…”

Understanding the Human Dimensions of Recycling and Source Separation Practices at the Household Level: An Evidence in Perak, Malaysia

“…Although the households found it difficult to follow the segregation guidelines, which were rather broad and ambiguous in the details [17], it was fear towards the heavy fines imposed by the government rather than environmental protection or sustainability that pressured the households to comply with the regulation [16]. Thus, it deviated from the Chinese government's initial vision of promoting sustainable development, which aims to depreciate the culture of throwaway consumerism [18]. The key idea here is to promote a sustainable society by sustainable waste disposal while looking into individual daily consumption through lifestyle choice [1,3,18].…”