Determinants Of Urban Residents' Recycling Behavior

Municipal solid waste(MSW)is a by-product of the rapid development of urbanization.According to the statistics,in 2015,the annual output of municipal solid waste in China was about 1.9 billion tons,of which Jiangsu,Zhejiang,Shandong,Guangdong and etc.were more than 10 million tons,and showed a trend of increasing year by year.At present,the incineration and landfill are still the main domestic waste disposal technologies in China.However,with the continuous increase in the production of MSW,the present waste management system focusing on terminal disposal continues to highlight the drawbacks.Due to the limited life and big occupied area,the refuse landfill is easy to lead to the contradiction of land use in urban area.In addition,the leachate,the odor,and the ineffective landfill technology are harmful to the surrounding environment.Besides,the NIMBY issues caused by people's distrust towards the MSW disposal facilities will hinder MSW disposal facilities' site selection.To alleviate the problem of MSW,in 2000,the government officially launched the recycling activity.Beijing,Shanghai,Hangzhou and other 5 cities which were selected as the first batch of pilot cities,continued to explore ways to promote the recycling behavior,and have accumulated a certain amount of work experiences.However,due to people's weak consciousness of recycling behavior,this activity hasn't achieved expected progress.The recycling activity is a complex issue,which refers to the management,the economics,and the sociology.The effect of recycling activity is affected by many factors,such as policy,management,infrastructure,local economy,residents'cognition,and so on.In this paper,we selected Nanjing,Beijing,Hangzhou,Guangzhou,Yichun,Chongqing,Kunming,and Guiyang as the study area,and collected data by questionnaire.Then,we used the Spearman correlation analysis and the Hierarchical Linear Model to study the effects of individual variables(socioeconomic variables,cognition and attitudes towards recycling behavior,situational factors,incentive policy)and regional variables(geographic position,regional per capita GDP,sanitation investment,garbage disposal investment,sanitation facility,implementation time)on people's recycling behavior.Then,based on the study of recycling system at home and abroad,we studied in-depth in people's preference towards recycling behavior through the hierarchical clustering and the multidimensional scaling analysis,and gives the optimization suggestions for China's recycling system.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The influence of individual variables on respondents' recycling behavior?Gender and age have a significant impact on respondents' recycling behavior.More specifically,women are more likely to implement the recycling behavior than men;the elder are more likely to implement the recycling behavior than the younger;?Respondents' cognition and attitudes have significant positive effects on recycling behavior,the right one is more likely to implement the recycling behavior than the wrong one;? The situational factors have a significant positive impact on respondents' recycling behavior,insufficient sanitation facilities,untimely collection and management,insufficient publicity and education will weaken people's willingness to implement the recycling behavior;?The incentive policies have a significant impact on respondents' recycling behavior.(2)The influence of regional variables on respondents' recycling behavior?The 83.2%differences within respondents' recycling behavior is caused by individual variables,the other 16.8%is caused by regional variables;?The regional per capita GDP and the garbage disposal investment both have a significant positive impact on respondents' recycling behavior;?The regional per capita GDP can positively moderate the effect of age on respondents' recycling behavior.(3)Respondents' cognition and knowledge towards recycling systemThe average correct recycling rate is 62.3%,among which the recycled waste is 67.9%,the hazardous waste is 64%,the kitchen waste is 70.5%and other garbage is 46.4%.The main cognitive problems include:the unclear cognition towards electronic waste,toxic and hazardous waste,the cognitive confusion towards special garbage,such as toilet paper.(4)Public preference towards recycling behavior?The hierarchical cluster analysis show that,when the classification categories is 2,the public tend to classify MSW according to "does it kitchen waste" or "does it recycle waste";when the classification categories is 3,the public tend to classify MSW into the recycled waste,the kitchen waste and the other waste;when the classification categories is not less than 4,people would get confused;? The multidimensional scaling analysis showed that Nanjing,Beijing,Hangzhou,Chongqing and Guiyang's respondents prefer to classify waste into 3 categories,such as the recycled waste,the kitchen waste and the other waste;Guangzhou and Kunming's respondents prefer to classify waste into 2 categories,such as the kitchen waste and the other waste;Yichun's results show no tendency,indicate that residents here were confused with the present recycle system.