Understanding Public Environmental Awareness and Attitudes toward Circular Economy Transition in Saudi Arabia

Abdulaziz I Almulhim,Ismaila Rimi Abubakar

doi:10.3390/su131810157

Abdulaziz I Almulhim, Ismaila Rimi Abubakar

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810157

Copy DOI

Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Sep 10, 2021
Citations: 55	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University

Abstract

Circular economy (CE) has been globally acknowledged as a national sustainable development (SD) strategy to confront resource shortages and environmental contamination challenges. Although public behaviors and lifestyles play an essential role in achieving sustainability, in developing countries, few studies explored the role of public awareness, attitudes, and lifestyles on CE transition. Thus, it is necessary to elicit public opinion to understand their awareness and attitude regarding CE strategy to determine obstacles to CE implementation and approaches of overcoming them. This study thus focuses on understanding public awareness and attitudes to CE transition in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to 402 residents of the Dammam Metropolitan Area. The results indicated that the respondents had little understanding of the CE concept due to limited awareness of the topic. However, they held an optimistic attitude towards trash separation and classified their trash as “can be sold”, “reused”, and “exchanged for a new one”. Furthermore, the respondents’ level of awareness regarding the CE transition is positively related to their level of education. In contrast, the inclination towards resource conservation and pro-environmental behavior positively correlates to the age demographic. This paper thus contributes to the empirical literature on CE transition by exploring the public awareness and attitudes towards its implementation in Saudi Arabia.

Highlights

A circular economy (CE) is a framework that promotes maximum efficiency in using finite resources, where value is given to each part of the lifecycle of materials, commodities are devised to offer lasting values, emissions and leakages are curtailed through “slowing, closing, or narrowing material and energy loops”, and waste is viewed as a resource and input for further manufacturing [1]
In Saudi Arabia, industrial growth, rapid urbanization (83% of the population living in cities as of 2010), and a high-consumption lifestyle has led to many environmental issues, including the degradation of ecosystems, depletion of natural resources, and extensive environmental pollution [12]
The present study focused on exploring public awareness of and attitudes toward CE

Summary

Introduction

A circular economy (CE) is a framework that promotes maximum efficiency in using finite resources, where value is given to each part of the lifecycle of materials, commodities are devised to offer lasting values, emissions and leakages are curtailed through “slowing, closing, or narrowing material and energy loops”, and waste is viewed as a resource and input for further manufacturing [1]. CE is implemented in materials efficiency, product design, product recycling, electro-mobility, and promoting low-carbon city [3,4,5,6] It is a worldwide strategy where the conventional linear economic framework is shifted to a closed-loop framework by considering the connection between materials use and waste residuals [7,8]. In Saudi Arabia, industrial growth, rapid urbanization (83% of the population living in cities as of 2010), and a high-consumption lifestyle has led to many environmental issues, including the degradation of ecosystems, depletion of natural resources, and extensive environmental pollution [12] To address these issues, the government aims to transform its Sustainability 2021, 13, 10157.

Methods

Results

Conclusion