Recycling program : motivator or barrier for recycling

Abstract

Participation of households in waste separation at source is essential for achieving high recycling rates and diversion from energy recovery and landfill. To engage inhabitants in recycling is therefore an important objective for the national as well as the local waste management. Source separation of waste, however, requires much effort from the individual.

Recycling programs should be designed so that they facilitate and motivate people to actively participate in waste separation and recycling. Perceived barriers for recycling can discourage people to participate, and it has even been reported that recycling programs function as a barrier instead as a motivator for recycling.

The aim of this study was to show the perception of the local waste management of inhabitants in Sweden and Bulgaria to reveal if the recycling programs were perceived as a barrier for recycling.

As members in the European Union, Sweden and Bulgaria have similar waste objectives and legislation but different performance in the waste sector. A questionnaire in Swedish and Bulgarian language was submitted to university students, 111 from Sweden and 112 from Bulgaria. Frequencies and the Theory of Planned Behaviour were used as evaluation tools. The results showed that dissatisfaction with waste collection services could prevent people from participation in waste separation and recycling even if these people had positive attitude to and possessed knowledge on recycling.