Understanding, predicting, and influencing recycling behavior: The future generation.

Abstract

In light of the current waste crisis, it is critical that we begin attempts to influence attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding waste recycling. In the first study, a decision-making model, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), was tested to explain recycling behavior. The TRA purports that behavior can be explained directly by behavioral intentions and indirectly by attitudes and beliefs about the behavioral act. The second study incorporated two types of interventions (educational and feedback) developed to modify recycling attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions and thereby enhance recycling behavior. A questionnaire comprising the concepts of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) was administered to 4,682 first-year students at The University of Michigan. Baseline data were gathered from 3,706 out of 4,682 students (80% response rate). Of those 3,706 students, 1,604 students also completed the follow-up questionnaire (34% response rate overall). Using a quasi-experimental design, eight residence halls were matched on size and randomly assigned to one of four intervention conditions (two halls per group): (1) recycling education, (2) feedback about recycling behavior, (3) education plus feedback, or (4) control. The intervention period lasted 5 months. A path analytic technique used in the first study indicated that the TRA was useful in explaining self-reported recycling behavior. The respondent's rated importance of recycling compared to other social issues mediated the relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions. To evaluate the data from the second study, a multiple comparison using an a priori Scheffe' procedure was used. Results showed that there were no significant group differences in terms of the students' attitudes, beliefs, rated importance, recycling knowledge, or behavioral intentions. Students receiving monthly feedback pertaining to the amount of material recycled in their residence, however, reported participating in recycling to a greater degree than those receiving only the educational intervention or nothing at all (p $<$.001). Overall, findings from the two studies suggest that there is a relationship between an individual's recycling attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. In addition, feedback and educational intervention strategies appear useful in enhancing recycling behavior.