Identifying barriers and promoters of household waste sorting among students

Abstract

The amount of municipal waste generated increases globally every year and has numerous negative impacts on the environment. To ensure availability of materials and sustainable production, recycling and reuse of materials are vital, which require segregation of waste based on the type of materials. Households generate a major portion of municipal waste, including many materials that can be reused and recycled. Therefore, the segregation of household waste, and especially source segregation becomes significant. Recycling rates in Finland have recently plateaued and more effort and resources are being put into increasing the recycling rates. The role of students in sorting of household waste and recycling was studied to identify the barriers and promoters towards source segregation and recycling behaviour. A survey study was carried out in order to assess the rate of sorting and recycling among students.

The data were collected from 106 students from two groups and predictions about various groups were made and factors that would promote source segregation of household waste among students were identified. The survey results as well as the predicted results show that the students sort and recycle the household waste at a rate higher than that of the region’s average rate, but the current collection and infrastructure need improvement if the rates are to improve. Close to 90% of the participants sorted their household waste. The predicted rates of sorting household waste for various groups of students ranged from 73% to 81%, which were considerably higher than the average rate (63%) for the region.

The main factor that motivated students to engage in sorting and recycling was the knowledge about the significance of sorting and recycling. The convenience of having the mixed waste bin and in addition a lack of bins (both inside and outside the apartments) for different types of waste inhibit thorough sorting. A lack of space for bins inside the apartments is also a limiting factor. Providing more bins, especially separate bins for plastic waste along with easier ways to sort and store the waste can improve the recycling rates.