Abstract
The purpose of this study was to widen the knowledge about the recycling behaviour of consumers in order to understand their motivations related to the separate collection of household waste. This work encompasses a segmentation analysis revealing discrepancies between the respondents, who were profiled into three clusters: Engaged in green, characterised by high values of pro-environmental attitudes; Indolent adopters, described by respondents revealing moderate attitudes towards sorting waste; and Ecological objectors, who do not appreciate the benefits of recycling. The results showed that regardless of the cluster type, the level of actual knowledge about segregation rules was similar and insufficient, which hinders the correct sorting of household waste. It was also found that special attention should be paid to the quality of the information provided by FMCG packaging. Our study highlighted the need for a mandatory, precise, and coherent system of packaging labelling in order to promote pro-environmental attitudes and enhance the effectiveness of recycling.
Highlights
The aim of this study is to widen the knowledge about the recycling behaviour of consumers in order to understand the motivation of Poles related to the separate collection of waste
It implies that notwithstanding the environmental awareness and degree of involvement of respondents in recycling, there is an information gap that hinders the correct sorting of household waste
The results showed that consumers’ recycling behaviour is influenced by personal norms and behavioural intentions as well as their actual knowledge
Summary
Global pollution has become one of the most important environmental issues This problem affects emerging economies, where it is the most visible due to the lack of effective waste collection systems, but it is an urgent issue in developed countries. According to World Bank data, food and green waste, as well as paper and plastics, represent major waste streams. Since the latter ones are valuable secondary resources, recycling should be a preferred treatment operation applied for waste management [1]. In the European Union (EU-28) during the period of 2004–2018, the quantity of waste recycled increased from 45.9% (870 million tonnes) in 2004 to 54.6% (1184 million tonnes) in. In 2018, 37.9% of the total treated waste was recycled, 10.7% was backfilled, and 6.0% was treated using energy recovery
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