External influences on forming residents’ waste separation behaviour: Evidence from households in Hangzhou, China

Due to the increasing amount of global waste generated over the years, most countries have the urgency to implement effective household waste recycling to solve this problem. In order to develop the policy that regulates waste recycling behaviour, it is important to investigate on the external factors that may influence an individual's waste sorting behaviour and participation rate. In this paper, we examined how four possible external factors―namely market incentives, market facilitators such as informal recycling market, government incentive and government facilitators―influence waste separation behaviour of Hangzhou's residents in China. The survey questionnaire was designed based on the extension of an extant theoretical framework and literature review, and then disseminated to the households through systematic sampling in JB Street of Hangzhou, resulting in a sample size of 631 valid responses. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of each construct. Our results revealed a significant and positive correlation between all the constructs to waste separation intention except the path from market incentive to intention. We further discussed on the moderating effect of the social-demographic variables such as social influence, gender and income on recycling intention and waste separation behaviour. This study expands the understanding on perceived effectiveness of external factors that influence residents' waste separation behaviour. The findings can be extrapolated to other countries to implement effective household waste management policies.