Shanghai Resident's Recycling Behavior Of Unused And Expired Drugs

Over the last few years,with improvement in people's living standards and prosperity of pharmaceutical market,drug storage in the society has grown significantly,following by a noticeable increase of unused and expired drugs.Pharmaceutical products,if not properly handled or disposed,would become the cause of land and water contamination.Even more serious,if there is left over of medical liquid and residue in the bottle or in any form of packaging,it is highly likely to release toxin that poses a great threat to the environmental system.In addition to this,if effective management is not in place,large amount of expired drugs could be collected or bought by those illegal traders in a very low price,which in turn would be a catastrophe to the society.Result of this study confirmed that,there are still misunderstandings of resident's perception in drug disposal,say,throwing away unused and expired drugs in the garbage is the best disposal way.Research found that residents who have actually taken unused or expired drug to recycling center covers only 10%of the research sample;it would be extremely difficult to increase drug recycling behavior when people do not even realize the potential harm of those unused and expired drugs to the environment and have little knowledge about the recycling channel itself.Resident's perception,intention and behavior toward drug recycling is closely connected to the smooth development of drug recycling system.There were majority of studies focusing on cost evaluation of pharmaceutical recycling,operation model of drug recycling,and residual value of recycled drugs etc.from perspective of the enterprises.However,systematic study on the formation mechanism of pharmaceutical recycling behavior from perspective of the residents is yet sufficient.In this study,Norm Activation Model and Theory of Planned Behavior were combined to construct a conceptual model of Shanghai residents' unused and expired drugs recycling behavior.In order to better predict and explain the behavior,perceived environmental knowledge was also added into the model.Data from 238 questionnaires were obtained and analyzed using structural equation model via SPSS21 and AMOS22.The research then tested the proposed theoretical hypotheses and modified the conceptual model in order to determine factors that influence Shanghai residents' unused and expired drugs recycling behavior.Finding showed:first,perceived behavioral control and recycling intention had direct influence on pharmaceutical recycling behavior;in which,perceived behavioral control had no significant influence on behavioral intention,but is the most influential factor of recycling behavior;second,social/subjective norms directly affected personal norms,as well as perceived environmental knowledge;third,behavioral intention was determined by personal norms;even social/subjective norms and ascription of responsivity had no direct impact on behavioral intention,each of them influenced behavioral intention indirectly through personal norms,and further promoted pharmaceutical recycling behavior.Based on results of the empirical analysis and interrelations of factors determined,this paper then put forward suggestions on the increase of residents' unused and expired drugs recycling behavior.