Abstract
Due to the increasing waste generation over the years in China, there is an urgent need to addressing this major problem by implementing effective household waste separation programs. Although past studies have tried to explain the waste behaviour from social and psychological motivations, there is little understanding as to the impact of individual moral obligation and past experience on forming waste separating intention. The aim of this study is to investigate key determinants influencing household waste separation intention and behaviour. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model, we designed a survey questionnaire by taking account of determinants including residents’ attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, moral obligation, past behaviour, and demographic factors, with the prediction of household waste separation behaviour in mind. After obtaining 628 valid questionnaires from households in the city of Hangzhou, the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of each construct. The results indicate that subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, past behaviour and intention significantly predict household waste separation behaviour, with past behaviour being the most significant construct to predict individuals’ intention and behaviour. Additional analysis on the moderating effect of different kinds of people in terms of their genders, ages, income levels and perceived policy effectiveness, to further evoke household waste separation behaviours is also discussed. The findings suggest insightful future policies that can focus on residents’ habit formation by providing the convenient location of waste separation and collection facilities, encouraging market-driven recycling programs and traders, promoting community campaigns and education which help residents to form favourable habits for protecting the environment.
Highlights
Considering the rapid increase in population and development along with the intense increase in household solid waste generation that causes a significant impact on the environment degradation and human health in China, various waste sorting initiatives have been gathering momentums across this country since 2000
The results indicate that past behaviour is the strongest predictor of waste separation intention and behaviour, with the largest estimated path coefficient of all Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) constructs in this study
The results show that the path from attitude towards intention (H2) is insignificant for both low and high Perceived Policy Effectiveness (PPE) groups, while the paths from perceived moral obligations towards attitude (H1), past behaviour towards intention (H6) and intention towards behaviour (H8) are significant for both groups
Summary
Considering the rapid increase in population and development along with the intense increase in household solid waste generation that causes a significant impact on the environment degradation and human health in China, various waste sorting initiatives have been gathering momentums across this country since 2000. With “garbage sieges” becoming increasingly serious In China, the policy of separating household waste for disposal has been raised to an unprecedented level: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guilin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen are the first batch of cities to pilot waste separation schemes. Results have shown that household waste source separation in these cities was not successful enough due to the lack of participation from the residents. To bridge this gap, it is critical to explore and understand the drivers and barriers behind resident’s waste separation behaviour, in order to facilitate the public participation in the waste separation programs and reconcile the irrationality of collective action in China
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