Reasons for non-participation in a kerbside recycling scheme

In this article potential barriers to recycling are explored within a UK community of approximately 8000 households that are piloting a kerbside paper recycling scheme. All 1690 non-users of the scheme were surveyed for their decisions not to participate. A 43% response rate was generated from the survey and the reasons given by householders were coded into 12 categories. The main reasons for non-participation included insufficient paper and lack of space in which to locate the recycling bin. 62% of the non-participants reported that they were recycling paper using other facilities such as local bring schemes and charity collections. Strategies to increase participation in the kerbside scheme are suggested.     

Social, cultural and structural influences on household waste recycling: A case study

The household-recycling rate in the Borough of Burnley, England in 2001/2002 was only half the national average of 12%. This research employed both quantitative and qualitative surveys in order to ascertain whether householders’ attitudes to recycling were contributory factors to the generally poor recycling performance and to investigate other social, cultural and structural influences. The Borough has a large Asian–British population concentrated in two deprived wards where recycling rates are particularly low, so special attention was given to ascertaining their attitudes towards recycling.The quantitative survey comprised a postal questionnaire sent to a random sample of 360 households drawn from the electoral register. The qualitative survey consisted of group interviews with the Asian–British population at local community centres and focus groups attended by volunteers from the quantitative study.The findings suggest that householders are very willing to participate in recycling, as shown by the almost 80% claiming to recycle paper, but that local recycling services are too unreliable and inconvenient to allow them to do so comprehensively. Asian–British attitudes to recycling were found to be no different to those of the wider population, with their low participation being linked to the higher priorities imposed upon them by economic deprivation. The findings are broadly in line with those of the literature in that recycling participation tends to be higher among more affluent and older people, but lower among less affluent and younger households, probably due in part to the availability of both storage space and time, with the implication that the Borough's preponderance of terraced housing militates against a high recycling rate. Policy recommendations to local authorities include the provision of bespoke recycling services to suit the variety of residential conditions across the UK, and the provision of regular feedback to householders regarding recycling services and performance.Further research is needed to identify non-recyclers and to explore how householders’ underlying psychological, cultural and social attitudes to recycling impinge upon recycling and participation rates.     

Why recycle? A comparison of recycling motivations in four communities

Four Illinois communities with different sociode-mographic compositions and at various stages of planning for solid waste management were surveyed to determine the influence of sociodemographic variables and planning stages on the factors that motivate recycling behavior. A factor analysis of importance ratings of reasons for recycling and for not recycling yielded five factors interpreted as altruism, personal inconvenience, social influences, economic incentives, and household storage. The four communities were shown to be significantly different in multivariate analyses of the five motivational factors. However, attempts to explain these community differences with regression analyses, which predicted the motivational factors with dummy codes for planning stages, a measure of self-reported recycling behavior, and sociodemographic measures were unsatisfactory. Contrary to expectation, the solid waste management planning stages of the cities (curbside pickup, recycling dropoff center, and planning in progress) contributed only very slightly to the prediction of motivational factors for recycling. Community differences were better explained by different underlying motivational structures among the four communities. Altruistic reasons for recycling (e.g., conserving resources) composed the only factor which was similar across the four communities. This factor was also perceived to be the most important reason for recycling by respondents from all four communities. The results of the study supported the notion that convenient, voluntary recycling programs that rely on environmental concern and conscience for motivation are useful approaches to reducing waste.     

Public understanding and its effect on recycling performance in Hampshire and Milton Keynes

Improving the recycling rate might be the primary aim of ‘recycling targets’, but good diversion from disposal can be achieved in different ways. Public participation is obviously critical to success; however it is not just how many people participate, but how well they do so, that is important. Analysis of public attitude research gave insight into how effectively recyclers were participating, and examined levels of public understanding. These were correlated with design parameters and publicity and education strategies to try to identify aspects of successful schemes that led to high quality of participation.     

Voluntary recycling despite disincentives

This paper assesses the determinants of take-up of a voluntary waste separation scheme, in a scenario where residents sorted, stored and paid for collection of recycling waste even though mixed waste was collected at the kerbside more conveniently, free of charge and without any quantity limits. Uptake of the scheme was positive, persistent and diverse across localities, offering an opportunity to assess the factors determining voluntary participation in the presence of disincentives. We employ a unique panel data-set (n = 4,644) from Malta, including data on recyclable waste kilogrammes collected over the first 86 weeks of the scheme's operation. Drawing on insights from environmental economics and psychology, a model is empirically estimated. Results indicate that uptake is suppressed by the initial constraints households may face and stimulated by collection frequency. Political vote is an important determinant of participation and this interacts with scheme promotion to create diverse uptake rates.     

Recycling Policy in Areas of Low Income and Multi-storey Housing

The paper considers the participation of households in recycling programmes in areas of multi-storey, low income housing which are often considered unattractivefor such programmes.A model of the material recycled is presented together with a review of socio-economic, housing, technological, policy and other factors influencing household recycling. This is followed by a case study of two areas in the city of Edinburgh. Results suggest that the level of recycling is influenced by collection methods, for all materials except glass, with half of the recyclers starting as a result of the introduction of kerbside collection. Housing characteristics such as the storey-level in buildings without lifts , household size and access to cars all influenced recycling participation rates. Housing tenure was not found to be significant. This suggests that well designed kerbside collection programmescan have a significant impact in areas with high levels of multi-storey dwellings, low income and public housing.     

大力发展循环经济促进宁阳县可持续发展

宁阳县发展循环经济过程中所取得的初步成果,同时对当前存在的突出问题,提出了相应的对策和改进措施:制定促进循环经济发展的相关政策;构筑循环经济基本模式,推动建立生态工业园;建立循环经济发展的技术支撑体系;制定发展循环经济的长远规划;提高全民发展循环经济意识和公众参与水平.     

Analysis of optimal recycling policy in a market economy

Recycling is still in its relative infancy in many Western societies, although recycling programmes have grown considerably in recent years and different programmes have evolved. This paper applies straightforward analytical techniques to demonstrate ways to achieve an optimal recycling programme – a policy that would result in a longer-term cost-efficient programme which would be beneficial in overall resource and environmental management .     

Mass communication and pro-environmental behaviour: waste recycling in Hong Kong

Treatment of domestic waste has been one of the major environmental problems in Hong Kong. The Government has a stated policy to advocate the minimization of waste disposal through the encouragement of waste reduction, re-use and recycling. The current study applies Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour to predict behavioural intention and actual behaviour of voluntary use of waste recycling receptacles. A systematic random sample of 173 household members in a public housing estate were interviewed. The results indicated that attitude was the major factor in predicting behavioural intention, followed by behavioural control and social norms. Attitude, subjective norm and perceived control together explained 44% of the variance of behavioural intention. Perception of mass media as a major source of subjective norm was first introduced and tested. Mass communication stood out as one of the major sources of influence in establishment of subjective norms. The study has the implication that more publicity messages should be put on the mass media to promote green behaviours.     

Environmental injustice of informal e-waste recycling in Agbogbloshie-Accra: urban political ecology perspective

This paper provides additional empirical knowledge of injustice embedded in the urban governance of informal-sector electronic waste (e-waste) recycling in Ghana. It uses Urban Political Ecology and Environmental Justice perspectives to explain how divergent interest and power among diverse actors in the e-waste sector engender social and environmental (in)justice in Accra. Using the case study approach, this paper reveals that the persistent struggles over interest and power which characterise the governance and management of informal e-waste recycling generate inequity, false accusations, misrecognition, disrespect, devaluation, neglect, exclusion, and abuse of freedom and rights. Inclusive of the finding is the development of local resistance and social movement in defence of interests and against state aggression, oppression, domination and neglect. The study concludes to suggest that the governance of urban socio-economic and ecological space of Accra should involve coordination, participation, holistic inclusion of diverse interest, so as to minimise trade-offs and reap synergies.     

Reverse logistics in the Brazilian construction industry

In Brazil most Construction and Demolition Waste (C&D waste) is not recycled. This situation is expected to change significantly, since new federal regulations oblige municipalities to create and implement sustainable C&D waste management plans which assign an important role to recycling activities. The recycling organizational network and its flows and components are fundamental to C&D waste recycling feasibility. Organizational networks, flows and components involve reverse logistics. The aim of this work is to introduce the concepts of reverse logistics and reverse distribution channel networks and to study the Brazilian C&D waste case.     

Formalising informal solid waste recycling at the Pomona dumpsite in Harare,Zimbabwe

The role of informal recycling in poverty alleviation and solid waste management in cities in developing countries has been receiving increased attention. This study explores the integration of the informal recycling sector with the Harare City Council's solid waste management system, focusing on the Pomona dumpsite. The extent of this integration was compared with interventions proposed in InteRa, a new way of evaluating the integration of informal recyclers with the waste management systems of cities in developing countries. Our results suggest that the Harare City Council, which had the vision of transforming itself into a world‐class city, failed to fully integrate the informal recycling sector. We suggest to policymakers that complete integration of the informal sector will not necessarily prevent cities from achieving such visions. Rather, addressing the neglected interventions may help in achieving their visions.     

Financing electronic waste recycling Californian households' willingness to pay advanced recycling fees

The growth of electronic waste (e-waste) is of increasing concern because of its toxic content and low recycling rates. The e-waste recycling infrastructure needs to be developed, yet little is known about people's willingness to fund its expansion. This paper examines this issue based on a 2004 mail survey of California households. Using an ordered logit model, we find that age, income, beliefs about government and business roles, proximity to existing recycling facilities, community density, education, and environmental attitudes are significant factors for explaining people's willingness to pay an advanced recycling fee (ARF) for electronics. Most respondents are willing to support a 1% ARF. Our results suggest that policymakers should target middle-aged and older adults, improve programs in communities with existing recycling centers or in rural communities, and consider public-private partnerships for e-waste recycling programs.     

Determining the socially optimal recycling rate

What municipal recycling rate is socially optimal? One credible answer would consider the recycling rate that minimizes the overall social costs of managing municipal waste. Such social costs are comprised of all budgetary costs and revenues associated with operating municipal waste and recycling programs, all costs to recycling households associated with preparing and storing recyclable materials for collection, all external disposal costs associated with waste disposed at landfills or incinerators, and all external benefits associated with the provision of recycled materials that foster environmentally efficient production processes. This paper discusses how to estimate these four components of social cost to then estimate the optimal recycling rate.     

Determining advanced recycling fees and subsidies in "E-scrap" reverse supply chains

Primarily due to environmental concerns and legislative mandates, the disposition of end-of-life (EOL) electronics products has attracted much attention. Advanced recycling fees (ARFs) and government subsidies may play important roles in encouraging or curtailing the flows of recycled items. We present a Stackelberg-type model to determine ARFs and socially optimal subsidy fees in decentralized reverse supply chains where each entity independently acts according to its own interests. The model consists of one leader (the government) and two followers (a group of manufacturers, importers, and sellers (MISs) and a group of recyclers). To maximize social welfare, the government determines the ARFs paid by MIS and the subsidy fees for recyclers when MIS sells new products and recyclers process EOL products. We find that MIS and recyclers behave at the equilibrium status by choosing optimal selling quantity in the market and optimal reward money for customers bringing EOL products to recyclers. Under this approach the two fees achieve the maximum of social welfare at the equilibrium status, while both MIS and recyclers gain the maximum of profits. For comparative purposes, we also develop a conceptual model describing the current practice by which ARFs and the subsidy fees are determined on the basis of fund balance between revenues and costs along with recycling operations. We conclude that our results outperform current practice.     

Metals recycling in the United States

Twenty-two metals for which secondary recovery is important, in terms of quantity and/or value, were compared and ranked for rate and efficiency of recycling, and availability of recycled metal. In general, their recycling rates trended upward over the period 1970–1993. Iron, aluminum, copper, gold, platinum, and lead accounted for most of the value of all secondary metal produced, while iron and steel dominated in terms of quantity produced and exported. The factors most influential on recycling rates are profitability, public support, organization of infrastructure, sortability, legislative support, and scrap purity. The share of supply accounted for by secondary metals is expected to surpass that of primary metals sometime in the next decade.     

Location set covering for waste resource recycling centers in Taiwan

The efficiency of Taiwan's waste management and resource recycling systems has been well recognized in recent years, but the present model used to locate recycling centers and to assign collection depots to those centers continues to show low efficiency. To address this issue, the study herein suggests implementing a new location-planning and assignment model to reduce the number of existing recycling centers. Such a reduction would reduce the use of land resources. Moreover, the total transportation distance would decrease through the efficient assignment of collection depots to recycling centers. On the basis of results from previous studies, this study proposes a 2-stage location set covering problem-P-median integrated model that obtains exact solutions using heuristic algorithms on the basis of set operations. The results of numerical analyses show that the model introduced in this study is effective in solving the problems stated above as well as in improving the layout of Taiwan's existing recycling centers.     

废弃产品回收处理企业环境绩效评价初探

近年来,废弃产品回收处理行业日益受到政府和社会各界的关注,而回收处理企业是实施回收处理活动的主体,相关法律、法规的出台对回收处理企业提出了更高的要求。本文在概括梳理相关法律、法规的基础上,初步建立了废弃产品回收处理企业环境绩效评价指标体系,为回收处理企业采用先进的技术工艺、降低环境负荷、加强职业健康监护和企业环境管理提供参考,以适应国家政策要求和行业发展的需要。     

Evaluating Environmental Public Participation: Methodological Questions

Increasingly, environmental agencies are engaged in public participation activities. Unfortunately, the limited evaluation of public participation programmes also makes improvement of such programmes more difficult. To encourage further thinking about the evaluation of environmental public participation programmes, this article discusses some of the basic issues raised by evaluators of social programmes (e.g. unemployment and housing, etc.) that have served as methodological proving grounds for evaluation. These issues include why evaluate and what and how to evaluate, as well as questions concerning the role of evaluators. To illustrate ways in which evaluators of environmental public participation programmes have grappled with these issues, examples of different methodological approaches are included. Finally, based on this review, recommendations are made to improve evaluations of environmental public participation programmes, such as increasing evaluation aimed at making mid-course corrections, which includes involving participants in evaluation and assessing a variety of participatory goals.