Assessing the Household's Municipal Waste Segregation Intentions in Metropolitan of Twin Cities of Pakistan: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Abstract

Abstract There is a growing concern about inappropriate waste disposal and its devastating impact on human health and the environment. Insights into the motivations of household waste segregation drivers may assist in knowing how to achieve the required behavior in establishing the most efficient and effective initiatives at the household level. The theoretical model is driven by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), in which psychological, institutional, and situational factors influence household intentions to adopt waste segregation. For this purpose, data from a representative sample comprising 849 households is obtained from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and analysis is conducted employing a structural equation modeling approach. The study finds that policy instruments have significant direct and indirect impacts on households' segregation intentions. The study concludes that government policy instruments strengthen personal and perceived norms for waste segregation intentions— resulting in an external intervention that would encourage intrinsic motivation rather than impair them. Therefore, policy intervention becomes the main entry point for initiating waste segregation behavior. Public policy must continue to emphasize the waste segregation at the source because it may help resource recovery from the refuse. This is imperative because the environment is a shared resource, and its conservation increases social welfare.