THE DETERMINANTS OF WASTE-SORTING INTENTION AND BEHAVIOR AMONG CHINESE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY IN BEIJING

Abstract

In China, waste sorting has been tested in eight pilot cities for more than a decade. However, these pilot programs have shown little success. Given that waste sorting is a prerequisite for waste recycling, more attention and financial resources must be provided. Considering that among the entire population undergraduate students might be the most active and willing to engage in recycling, in this paper, the waste-sorting intention and behavior of undergraduate students in Beijing are investigated in depth. By adopting a model that comprehensively incorporates the expanded Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Attitude–Behavior–Condition (A–B–C) theory, a questionnaire survey with data from 536 undergraduate students at eight universities in Beijing is analyzed by employing logistic and probit models. The estimation results indicate that the most important factors that affect students’ waste-sorting intention and behavior include the attitudes of the surrounding people, a moral sense when failing to sort waste, and knowledge based on the students’ subjective judgments. In comparison, situational factors have less impact on the dependent variables; however, some demographic factors may influence intention or actual behavior significantly.