Reasonable Motivations and Barriers for College Students to Effectively Sort Household Waste

Abstract

The amount of trash generated by college students on campus is enormous, with the average college student generating up to 640 pounds of trash per year, most of which accumulates at the end of the year when they move out of school. It has become a very wasteful annual tradition for many students to choose not to sort their trash and simply concentrate on throwing away most of their personal items and start over the next year to repurchase them. This waste is largely avoidable, as much of it can still be used. If the promotion of student waste sorting is to be successful, it is important to understand the motivations and barriers to students not sorting their waste. This paper examines this by constructing a Nash equilibrium model of the MSU student-school game and by conducting semi-structured interviews with students. It is found that there are several very focused reasons for students' motivations and barriers for not sorting garbage. Although college students have begun their higher education, the scope of their education is frequently limited, and many of them still lack common-sense knowledge about garbage sorting. College students often prefer to spend their time on social, athletic, and academic activities, which gives most students an excuse for being pressed for time and believing they do not have the time to do the tedious task of sorting garbage. At the same time, many students believe that everything they do will have a substantial gain for them; socializing will increase their popularity, and studying is the obvious direct gain of knowledge, compared to which sorting garbage does not seem to be so outstanding. On the other hand, there are problems with the school's management. Many students report that the school lacks garbage cans to sort garbage. These hindrances often limit the motivation of college students to sort their garbage.