Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Waste Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Waste Management, 139, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.12.032
Accepted author manuscript, 2.27 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Promoting Chinese urban residents’ participation in source separation and recycling
AU - Gu, B.
AU - Yao, Y.
AU - Hang, H.
AU - Wang, Y.
AU - Jia, R.
AU - Liu, L.
AU - Ling, H.
AU - Tang, X.
AU - Zhang, H.
AU - Wu, Z.
AU - Wu, Y.
AU - Fujiwara, T.
AU - Bai, Y.
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Waste Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Waste Management, 139, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.12.032
PY - 2022/2/15
Y1 - 2022/2/15
N2 - Source separation and recycling (SSR) for municipal solid waste is an important strategy for the transition to a circular economy and requires broader resident participation. How can residents’ participation in SSR be promoted? Here, we consider 13 cities in Jiangsu as microcosms of China. We quantify residents’ intentions to participate in SSR by distributing a validated questionnaire to 2,963 urban residents, analyze the results through structural equation modeling, and propose localized policy recommendations. We find that residents have positive attitudes toward SSR, although 92.6% of residents in southern Jiangsu were more willing to participate than those in northern Jiangsu (84.6%). Additionally, the influencing factors and their degree of influence on resident SSR participation intentions exhibit disparities across cities. “Accessibility of SSR facilities” simultaneously affects the 13 studied cities and is a key factor. “Environmental knowledge” and “environmental attitudes” are important impact factors, with occurrence frequencies of 84.6% and 69.2%, respectively. However, laws and regulations have no significant effect on residents’ SSR participation intentions. We recommend that the government create favorable external conditions related to facilities and services, promote extensive publicity and educational activities through various channels, and improve the effectiveness of SSR laws and regulations. Future SSR management strategies should be localized, flexible and comprehensive. This research could help decision makers in China and other countries design policy guides to promote SSR and help link current research areas to social development.
AB - Source separation and recycling (SSR) for municipal solid waste is an important strategy for the transition to a circular economy and requires broader resident participation. How can residents’ participation in SSR be promoted? Here, we consider 13 cities in Jiangsu as microcosms of China. We quantify residents’ intentions to participate in SSR by distributing a validated questionnaire to 2,963 urban residents, analyze the results through structural equation modeling, and propose localized policy recommendations. We find that residents have positive attitudes toward SSR, although 92.6% of residents in southern Jiangsu were more willing to participate than those in northern Jiangsu (84.6%). Additionally, the influencing factors and their degree of influence on resident SSR participation intentions exhibit disparities across cities. “Accessibility of SSR facilities” simultaneously affects the 13 studied cities and is a key factor. “Environmental knowledge” and “environmental attitudes” are important impact factors, with occurrence frequencies of 84.6% and 69.2%, respectively. However, laws and regulations have no significant effect on residents’ SSR participation intentions. We recommend that the government create favorable external conditions related to facilities and services, promote extensive publicity and educational activities through various channels, and improve the effectiveness of SSR laws and regulations. Future SSR management strategies should be localized, flexible and comprehensive. This research could help decision makers in China and other countries design policy guides to promote SSR and help link current research areas to social development.
KW - China
KW - Municipal solid waste
KW - Recycling
KW - Source separation
KW - Urban residents
KW - Decision making
KW - Laws and legislation
KW - Separation
KW - Circular economy
KW - Laws and regulations
KW - Localised
KW - Policy recommendations
KW - Positive attitude
KW - Recycling facilities
KW - Separation facilities
KW - Structural equation models
KW - Urban resident
KW - adult
KW - article
KW - female
KW - government
KW - human
KW - human experiment
KW - male
KW - mass medium
KW - microcosm
KW - municipal solid waste
KW - quantitative analysis
KW - questionnaire
KW - recycling
KW - social evolution
KW - structural equation modeling
KW - urban population
U2 - 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.12.032
DO - 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.12.032
M3 - Journal article
VL - 139
SP - 290
EP - 299
JO - Waste Management
JF - Waste Management
SN - 0956-053X
ER -