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

Abstract

Waste sorting is a key element for solving the current predicament of rural waste management. In the pilot areas of China, farmers’ domestic waste sorting behavior (DWSB) varies significantly, whereas there are few studies exploring the mechanism of its formation. To fill this research gap, this study constructs a research model of the internal logic of farmers’ waste sorting levels (i.e., no sorting; sorting recyclable waste; sorting recyclable and kitchen waste; and sorting recyclable, kitchen, harmful, and other waste) by considering circumstantial constraints (social norms in external factors) and psychological behavioral antecedents (personal norms and group identity in internal factors). Based on pilot survey data from farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, the results of the ordered logit model indicate that social norms and personal norms were the most significant predictors of the level of DWSB, while group identity was found to have no significant influence. Furthermore, the results of the grouping regression analysis showed that personal norms had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between social norms and farmers’ DWSB. Therefore, a more positive social atmosphere, better education, and personal environmental moral responsibility for domestic waste sorting should be established to enhance their levels of waste sorting behavior.

How is it effective for farmers to adopt environmentally friendly cultivated land protection technology: a configurational perspective

“…Subsequent theories, such as the attitude-context-behavior (ABC) theory (Zhang J. et al, 2020), the consciousness-context-behavior system model (Hou et al, 2021), and the cognitive-context-behavior model (CCB) (Aardema and Wong, 2020), suggest that behavior is the result of the interaction between external contextual factors and subjective psychological factors. Previous literature records have mainly analyzed contextspecific moderating effects based on the antecedents of behavior, such as attitudes, consciousness, and cognition, without considering the possible direct influence of external contexts on behavior (Li and Fang, 2022;Lou et al, 2022;Yuan et al, 2022). The causal relationships between the various influences are complex, and the configuration formed by multiple factors has a combined effect on behavior.…”

The waste separation behaviour of primary and middle school students and its influencing factors: Evidence from Yingtan City, China

“…Empirical studies designed to explore the factors that affect people's participation in waste separation based on the source of motivation typically divide the factors into two groups, namely internal/intrinsic motivation and external/extrinsic motivation (Xu et al 2018, Chen et al 2019, He et al 2020, Yuan et al 2022. Internal motivations mainly comprise individual psychological factors (e.g.…”