MOTIVATIONS AND BEHAVIORS THAT SUPPORT RECYCLING

This paper proposes that recycling researchers should pay attention to both attitudes towards recycling and the processes involved in recycling (recyclers' phenomenal experiences and organizing strategies). As predicted by Sansone and colleagues' model of how people induce themselves to engage in necessary but boring tasks, people who had reasons to persist at recycling (that is, who held strong prorecycling attitudes or had a social orientation towards recycling) were more likely to redefine recycling so as to emphasize its pleasures or the sense of satisfaction they gained from contributing to the environment. These people were also more likely to have developed a way of organizing recycling in their homes, to report few interferences with recycling, and—most important—to recycle on both short- and long-term bases. In accord with the model, people who became better recyclers by Time 2 had had stronger prorecycling attitudes at Time 1 than people who remained poor recyclers. Our results are consistent with the view that people who make a valued but uninteresting task more phenomenally interesting and more manageable are more likely to continue at the task. Sansone and colleagues' model provides a useful way to look at recycling and also suggests a new way that attitudes may be linked to behavior—via cognitive transformation of behavior.     

Motives as Predictors of the Public's Attitudes Toward Solid Waste Issues

/ Surveys focusing on solid-waste-related issues, conducted over a period of several years, provided data from independent samples of residents of a Midwestern, USA, community. The collection of these data yielded useful information about the relationship between residents' recycling motives and their attitudes toward solid waste management in light of several changes in the solid waste infrastructure of the community over that time. The initial survey assessed baseline beliefs and attitudes, while later surveys were conducted after the implementation of a community educational program and a curbside recycling program. The findings indicated that for recyclers and nonrecyclers, different motives predicted endorsement of solid waste programs and policies. Although a similar percentage of recyclers and nonrecyclers were in support of various proposed programs and policies, concern for the environment was found to be positively related to nonrecyclers' support of proposed programs, particularly before these programs were implemented. Prior to program implementation, motives other than environmental altruism were found to be related to recyclers' support of the programs. Additional findings support the idea that educational programs and increased accessibility to recycling opportunities affect the relationship between people's attitudes toward solid waste management and their recycling motives.     

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.     

Evaluating an Employer Transport Plan: effects on travel behaviour of parking charges and associated measures introduced at the University of Sheffield

Journeys to work form a significant proportion of all car journeys and employer transport plans have been advocated as a way to manage the transport needs of workers in order to contain the level of car trips and, therefore, emissions and other negative effects. A questionnaire survey and focus group interviews were used to evaluate the success of an employer transport plan implemented by the University of Sheffield in September 1997. The policy was associated with a marginal (7%) reduction in car use and promoted a limited increase in travel diversity. An objection to the principle of paying to park at work and ineligibility for a permit both deterred car use. The policy caused a re-evaluation of the journey to work. Nevertheless, a number of factors worked against switches in behaviour, particularly employees' perceptions of the university's motivation for introducing the plan and attitudes towards car use and public transport. Disincentives to car use need to be much more significant to persuade more employees to leave their car at home, and need to be tied to substantial improvements in the availability of non-car alternatives.     

Public participation in plastics recycling schemes

Without public contributions, recycling from domestic waste would not be possible. In order to support recycling projects it is important to try to understand who recycles, how they recycle, and why they recycle. This paper presents the results of a structured survey of 500 members of the public served by schemes to collect plastics waste for recycling. Data were gathered on the characteristics, behaviours and motivations of recyclers. The authors also sought to discover how the public perceive plastics compared to other materials, and as a recyclable material. Responses were collected in such a way that the awareness of the recyclability of materials could be compared with the recycling behaviour of respondents. An element of comparison was introduced between those served by a system of bottle banks (bring scheme) and those covered by a household collection (collect scheme). The survey results are reported and their implications for the management of post-consumer plastics waste collection schemes are discussed.     

Evaluating an Employer Transport Plan: Effects on travel behaviour of parking charges and associated measures introduced at the University of Sheffield

Journeys to work form a significant proportion of all car journeys and employer transport plans have been advocated as a way to manage the transport needs of workers in order to contain the level of car trips and, therefore, emissions and other negative effects. A questionnaire survey and focus group interviews were used to evaluate the success of an employer transport plan implemented by the University of Sheffield in September 1997. The policy was associated with a marginal (7%) reduction in car use and promoted a limited increase in travel diversity. An objection to the principle of paying to park at work and ineligibility for a permit both deterred car use. The policy caused a re-evaluation of the journey to work. Nevertheless, a number of factors worked against switches in behaviour, particularly employees' perceptions of the university's motivation for introducing the plan and attitudes towards car use and public transport. Disincentives to car use need to be much more significant to persuade more employees to leave their car at home, and need to be tied to substantial improvements in the availability of non-car alternatives.     

Recycling in Jerusalem: right or privilege?

This study analyses disparities in the provision of environmental services in Jerusalem, specifically through the distribution of recycling bins. The allocation of recycling bins in Jerusalem is uneven. Some neighbourhoods have more than their share of infrastructure, while others do not have any recycling bins at all. The spatial distribution of recycling bins throughout the city is analysed across the ethno-religious and socioeconomic divides, enabling us to determine whether the opportunity to recycle is a right or a privilege. The findings demonstrate that the Arab areas are literally not serviced. Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish neighbourhoods are discriminated against unless socioeconomic levels and population size are controlled. Therefore, waste-management policies reproduce social inequalities resulting in environmental injustice. Due to the fact that recycling in Jerusalem is voluntary and not obligatory, and that in general the public wants to recycle, the opportunity to recycle is indeed a privilege.     

The influence of adhesives on recycling

The finiteness of many resources made it necessary to think about how to save them by developing resource-saving technologies, e.g. to recycle materials. To execute the idea of recycling, it is necessary to think about a material recycling of the used products when designing them. This means that all additives of the process have to be designed in the way they do not disturb the later material recycling. Today, adhesives play a decisive role in the production of almost every good, especially for mass-produced articles and therefore it is important to choose adhesives that do not disturb the recycling of the primary materials. In recycling processes which take place at high temperatures (e.g. glass or metal recycling), the influence of the adhesives usually formed by organic polymers can be ignored. In the field of low temperature recycling technologies, the question whether an adhesive is recycling-friendly or not can only be answered by knowing its application and the recycling process. If the recycling processes are known, it is easy to chose suitable adhesives. For plastic and paper recycling, there are a lot of adhesives today that fulfill the requirements of recyclers. In order to simplify recycling for the future, adhesives with “switches enclosed” are being developed which will allow us to disbond system components into separate parts after use for reuse or material recycling.     

Factors Determining the Post-consumer Waste Recycling Burden

The environmental burden of collecting recoverables from households is generally omitted from life-cycle analyses comparing the environmental outcome of using secondary material from post-consumer waste (PCW) with virgin feedstock. However, this burden can be considerable, depending upon the characteristics of the collection methods employed. Given that the basic objective of recycling is to secure environmental benefits, it is vital that the burden of collection through both bring/dropoff and kerbside schemes is taken into account if a valid assessment of the environmental balance resulting from PCW recycling is to be made. This paper presents survey data comparing the burden of collection for different types of recycling provision. It describes the site and spatial characteristics determining the amount of transport dedicated to collection at bring/drop-off sites. Predictor variables are identified as measures of these characteristics, and the survey data compared with them. A regression model to assess energy use at bring/drop-off sites with varying characteristics is then developed. The potential uses of the techniques presented include the evaluation of the environmental burdens of recycling provision at the waste collection authority and regional level, allowing more informed choices to be made in the development of recycling provision from an environmental standpoint.     

Socially optimal and fund-balanced advanced recycling fees and subsidies in a competitive forward and reverse supply chain

Advanced recycling fees (ARFs) and government subsidy fees are important for curtailing the consumption of new products and encouraging recycling and disposal of end-of-life (EOL) products. We introduce a model consisting of a leader (the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA) and two groups of followers (MIS firms and recyclers) consisting of manufacturers, importers and sellers, and recyclers which compete in both consuming and recycling markets. The EPA determines the ARFs paid by the MIS firms and the fees subsidizing recyclers to maximize the social welfare in closed-loop supply chains where the MIS firms and recyclers attempt to maximize their respective profit functions. To compare with current practice, we describe a conceptual fund balance model to determine the ARF and subsidy fee on the basis of the balance between total collected ARFs and expenditure of subsidies. Using numerical examples for the laptop computer market in Taiwan, we demonstrate that our results outperform the current practice.     

Environmental cognition of small rural towns: The case of older residents

This study reports the relation of town size and personal and demographic characteristics of 989 rural older persons to five environmental cognition dimensions: perceived neighborhood size, neighborhood ratio, awareness of town amenities, number of amenity types and tour ratio. Town size differences were found for all five dimensions: residents of smaller towns (0–500 in population) identified smaller neighborhoods but larger neighborhood ratios, listed fewer town amenities and amenity types, and produced smaller tour ratios, than did residents of larger towns (1,501–2,500 in population). Relations were also found for gender, marital status, dwelling unit type, employment status, religion, and mental health status.     

How inclusive is inclusive recycling? Recyclers’ perspectives on a cross-sector partnership in Santiago de Chile

Inclusive recycling is the inspiring slogan of a project relying on a cross-sector (public–private–civil society) partnership implemented in Latin America with the objective to improve the socioeconomic conditions of recyclers. Through a qualitative study in Santiago de Chile, this paper seeks to understand how inclusive inclusive recycling is, by assessing how organised recyclers perceive the goals, the process, and the outcomes of this project. The main findings converge in observing a general low inclusion of recyclers, but they also enable to decompose the notion of inclusion into three dimensions: “inclusive goals” refers to the extent to which the goals of the recyclers are taken into account when designing the collaboration project; “inclusive process” refers to the extent to which recyclers are involved in the process of implementing the project; and “inclusive outcomes” refers to the capacity of the partnership to acknowledge the achievements of recyclers organisations before (and during) the project and to take into account the ongoing local dynamics when evaluating the project. These findings contribute to better understand the position and challenges of recyclers in this type of partnership and more generally to shed light on the potential power imbalance in waste management cross-sector partnerships.     

Garnering input for recycling communication strategies at a Big Ten University

With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are trying different approaches for minimizing their adverse environmental impacts. Among the approaches being used to revitalize campus sustainability efforts, new waste management strategies have included attempts to improve campus-recycling programs. This paper presents select findings from a comprehensive study at a large, Tier I university aimed at, among other things, informing university administration and decision makers working on the planning and implementation of a new campus-wide recycling facility and program. The researchers used a mixed-method approach to help them develop an understanding of the campus community's (1) perceived barriers to recycling, (2) recycling knowledge, (3) program preferences, and (4) environmental attitudes. The results from a web-based survey (n = 3896, RR1 = 24.9%) suggest, communication efforts for recycling programming should focus more on messages concerning what, how, and where to recycle rather than messages on why to recycle. Furthermore, the results suggest recycling-related publicity approaches should differentiate their mode and content for different segments of the community.     

发展循环经济是农村城镇化环境保护的必然抉择

农村城镇化在给农村经济带来繁荣和发展的同时，也带来了外部不经济问题。伴随着农村城镇化进程的加快，农村及城镇环境污染越来越严重。要协调好城镇发展与环境保护问题就必须发展循环经济，在城镇建立起企业内部清洁生产、企业间生态工业园区、工农业的多级生态链接、社会循环利用四个层次的循环模式，实现经济效益、生态效益和社会效益的统一。     

废物回收系统的社会评价方法

发展中国家已经将非正式回收系统进行了几次正规化,其目的是将其整合入正式的回收系统,其目的不仅仅是解决经济问题。而且还包括了非正规回收行业的社会问题,例如：社会歧视、教育的缺失以及健康和工作条件问题。然而,往往不能得到准确、正面的社会影响的评价和测量。本文的目的是根据社会生命周期评价法,用正确的手段对发展中国家的回收系统评价开发方法。以秘鲁城市案例研究表现了应用这一方法评价回收系统的案例显示了关于歧视、公认就业关系、社会效益的实现、体力工作条件和接受教育指标的负面绩效。关于结社自由、心理工作条件和社会的接受,城市回收业（从前的非正规）形成了较好的评价,而对于工作时间、最低、公平工资并没有获得好的评价。     

Industrial and urban symbiosis in Japan: Analysis of the Eco-Town program 1997–2006

Japan's Eco-Town Program spearheaded in Japan the integration of Industrial Symbiosis and Urban Symbiosis, seeking to maximise the economic and environmental benefit from close geographic proximity of industrial and urban areas, through the use of previously discarded commercial, municipal and industrial waste materials in industrial applications. The program established 26 Eco-Towns around Japan. Approximately 1.65 billion USD was invested in 61 innovative recycling projects, with an average government subsidy of 36%. In addition at least 107 other recycling facilities have been constructed without government subsidy. 14 Eco-Towns primarily contributed to improving industry's productivity, whilst 10 Eco-Towns primarily contributed to improving environmental amenity. In 16 Eco-Towns the private sector was the most important actor supporting local government in the realisation of the Eco-Town, whilst in 9 Eco-Towns this was civil society. The availability of investment subsidies, the coming into force of ambitious recycling legislation with quantified, product-specific targets, access to the significant technological resources of the private sector, and widespread recognition of the urgency to act on environmental issues, all contributed to the success of the Eco-Town Program.     

Wasting ways: Perceived distance to the recycling facilities predicts pro-environmental behavior

The present study aims at providing an improved understanding of the environmental factors affecting pro-environmental behavior. To this end, we introduce the economic concept of bounded rationality to the domain of recycling behavior, hypothesizing that the subjective costs of recycling are a better predictor of an individual's tendency to recycle than the objective costs. At the chosen study site, recyclables needed to be disposed of at collection centers distributed throughout the city, allowing for the analysis of recycling-related costs by assessing the distance between participants’ residence and the nearest collection center. Results from an online questionnaire completed by N = 306 citizens indicate that the perceived distance to the recycling facilities is more closely related to recycling behavior than the actual distance. By means of hierarchical regression analyses, we demonstrate that the perceived distance explains unique variance in recycling behavior while the actual distance conveys only redundant information. Surprisingly, the predictive potential of participants’ distance estimates appeared to be significantly larger for recycling behavior than for recycling intention. The implications of our results are discussed with regard to potential opportunities to promote recycling behavior by targeting individuals’ biased perception of recycling-related costs.     

The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior

The relation between place attachment and pro-environmental behavior is unclear. Studies have reported that place attachment is associated both with more and less pro-environmental behavior. To help clarify this, we distinguished two dimensions of place attachment: civic and natural, and explored their respective influences on pro-environmental behavior. A community sample of residents (N = 104) from two proximate towns with different environmental reputations reported the strength of their civic and natural place attachment, their performance of various pro-environmental behaviors, and a number of sociodemographic characteristics. Regression analyses revealed that natural, but not civic place attachment predicted pro-environmental behavior when controlling for the town, length of residence, gender, education and age. This demonstrates that research and theory on place attachment should consider its civic and natural dimensions independently.     

Evaluating canalside hedgerows to determine future interventions

This paper describes a project undertaken during 2001/2002 which developed a method for valuing hedgerows adjacent to the inland waterway network of Great Britain. The method enables the landowner, British Waterways, to manage their valuable environmental asset to achieve a good level of biodiversity and robust habitat balanced against the heavy amenity use the 3000 km canal network endures. Valuation techniques were developed using a combination of new and existing ecological indices for components of biodiversity, hedgerow structure and amenity, and synthesised into an index in an innovative combined approach. The resultant index was then applied to a sample 20 km section of hedge alongside the Grand Union Canal in Southeast England. The results obtained reflect the hedgerows' present value, and highlight factors that might improve or limit their future increase in value. The results from the case study application also demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between hedgerow structure and biodiversity, and that hedgerows in urban areas are less biodiverse and structurally sound than those in rural areas. Furthermore, there is a zone within rural areas influenced by the adjacent urban areas and/or higher amenity use. The paper concludes with an assessment of the approaches' strengths and weaknesses with a view to its compatibility with other hedgerow evaluations, such as HEGS, its use by other agencies or landowners, and to aid hedgerow management and future development.     

Who are our informal recyclers? An inquiry to uncover crisis and potential in Victoria,Canada

What is considered garbage embodies a recoverable economic value, and environmental cost if not recycled. Throughout the world, the often marginalised and impoverished population earns a living through informal recycling. This is also true for Victoria, British Columbia, one of the most affluent cities in Canada. This paper discusses results of a participatory socio-economic survey involving informal recyclers in Victoria, BC to determine their livelihood determinants. The findings reveal that “binning” is an important survival strategy to generate income. A new waste-management model that considers the social and environmental context is needed. Inclusive public policies can respond to the livelihood concerns outlined in this paper by facilitating access to recyclable materials, devising occupational safety improvements and educating about alternative strategies for resource recovery. This model can contribute to the overall sustainability of the community by reducing the waste of resources and people, empowering marginalised populations and reducing the environmental impacts of natural resource use and waste disposal.