How convenience and informational tools shape waste separation behavior: A social network approach

Abstract

Geopolitical risks such as energy crises and local or regional instability aggravate the growing conflict between limited natural resources and increasing consumption, making waste management—using waste as a resource—one of the most urgent agendas in the sustainability domain. Considering individuals' dual attributes (i.e., attitudes and behaviors), we develop an interaction model to investigate waste separation behavior that accounts for convenience and informational tools. Multiagent simulations are performed using data collected from 1056 residents in the top ten Chinese cities by volume of household waste. The results indicate that convenience tools can induce residents to separate waste. In particular, a 160% increase in the adoption rate is observed in response to decreasing (increasing) the distance to collection sites (accessibility to temporary storage facilities for recyclables) from 10 (0) to 0 (10). Publicity and education promote waste separation, as approximately 72% of individuals choose to separate waste when increasing the intensity of popular science propaganda from 0 to 0.2. Interestingly, social interaction appears to have a two-sided effect on waste separation behavior. The adoption rate of such behavior increases with the number of one's connections in sparse social networks, whereas the opposite is found in close social networks. The findings reveal the differentiated impacts of convenience and informational tools on waste minimization and provide new ideas for formulating customized strategies to promote waste separation in sparse (increasing individuals' number of connections) or close (monitoring rumors to achieve a tightly controlled intensity of interaction) social network scenarios.