The assessment of households' recycling costs: The role of personal motives

Abstract

This paper analyzes households' perceptions of recycling activities in a municipality in northern Sweden, Piteå. The purpose of the paper is to analyze whether moral motives matter for the assessment of households' waste sorting costs. Data were gathered using a mail-out survey to 850 randomly chosen individuals in the municipality of Piteå, Sweden. We employ an economic model of moral motivation and econometric techniques. The main result that follows from the analysis is that the results support the notion that moral motives significantly lower the costs associated with household recycling efforts.