Abstract
Changing residents’ recycling behavior at the source of waste generation is a fundamental way to solve the environmental and resource problems caused by express delivery packaging waste. Information intervention is a common means to help transform individual environmental protection behavior. In this study, behavioral experiments were used to examine the changes in individual express packaging waste recycling behaviors under the intervention of written and pictorial information. Differences in information processing and behavior decision-making among individuals (N = 660) categorized as self-interested, pro-relation, or pro-social were analyzed. Results showed that (1) recycling behavior is divided into persuasive, purchasing, disposal, and civil behavior. (2) Recycling behavior is differs significantly due to an individual’s education background, state of health, and interpersonal relationships. (3) Both written and pictorial information can positively change an individual’s recycling behavior, and their effectiveness is not significantly different. (4) Pictorial information has a stronger impact on purchasing behavior than written information. (5) Feedback from written information cannot effectively promote the overall recycling behavior of self-interested groups, but it can improve the overall recycling behavior of pro-relationship groups and pro-social groups. (6) Information intervention cannot effectively impact civil behavior, even among pro-social individuals. The research provides an important theoretical reference and practical basis for improving individual recycling behavior at its source.
Highlights
Data from China’s National Post Office and the Beijing Printing Institute show that in recent years, China’s express delivery volume has exceeded 2 billion pieces, generating a total of about 4 million tons of packaging waste (SPBPRC, 2018) [1]
Scores for persuasive behavior, purchasing behavior, and disposal behavior significantly increased, and the civil behavior score increased, the change was not significant. These results showed that information intervention can effectively influence an individual’s express delivery packaging waste recycling behavior, mainly in the aspects of persuasive behavior, purchasing behavior, and disposal behavior
They have a lower perception of living comfortable benefits for the recycling of express packaging waste, which leads to non-urgent and passive participation in express packaging waste recycling activities
Summary
Effective guidance for and intervention in an individual’s express packaging waste recycling behavior is of great significance to the realization of “cleanliness” and “resource recovery” of express packaging waste. In the field of resources and environment, few scholars have studied the differences between graphical/pictorial and written information interventions. These are the two main forms of information presentation, and embody significant differences in the intuition and abstractness of information presentation, which will have different effects on the individual’s initial cognition and psychological interpretation mechanism (Marlow and Jansson-Boyd, 2011; Yang and Zhu, 2016) [11,12]. It is of great significance to explore the difference between pictorial and written information interventions in terms of their effect on recycling behavior
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