A Study On The Influence Of Social Networks And Environmental Literacy On Farmers’ Domestic Waste Sorting Behaviour

Since the reform and opening up,China’s rural economy as a whole has developed rapidly,the living standards of rural residents have improved significantly and their lifestyles have changed greatly,but this has brought about an increase in the amount of domestic waste discharged year by year and its composition has become increasingly complex,resulting in the problem of domestic waste pollution among rural residents in China becoming increasingly apparent,seriously threatening the health and safety of rural residents and preventing us from achieving our ambitious goal of building This is a serious threat to the health and safety of rural residents and prevents us from achieving the ambitious goal of building a beautiful countryside.For this reason,the 19 th National Congress report points out that the classification of rural household waste is a key part of the improvement of the rural living environment,and is an important measure to promote the construction of rural ecological civilisation.As a direct participant and the biggest beneficiary of rural household waste management,farmers themselves have the endogenous motivation to participate in the management of rural household waste,so it is necessary to effectively stimulate the endogenous motivation of farmers’ household waste autonomy.Generally speaking,the behaviour of individuals is closely related to their literacy,and differences in literacy also determine differences in behaviour.Therefore,in order to increase farmers’ participation in waste separation,the psychological factor of individual environmental literacy should be taken into account,i.e.the level of individual environmental literacy determines the decision of their waste separation behaviour.However,as a collective action,it is likely that the inconsistency of individual behaviour will ultimately lead to the failure of the collective action.However,especially in a social environment like rural China,where relationships are complex and intertwined by blood,kinship and local ties,farmers interact with each other through their own ’circles’ to form social networks,and their production lives are influenced by the social networks in which they live.Therefore,a social network that enhances the homogeneity of the group is conducive to the convergence of individual and collective behaviours.Therefore,this paper uses social networks and environmental literacy as an entry point to study the influence of farmers’ waste separation behaviour and the interaction between the two.Based on the social network and environmental literacy of farmers,this paper takes collective action theory,planned behaviour theory,social network theory and environmental literacy theory as theoretical guides,and integrates the relevant literature from China and the West.Secondly,the social network and environmental literacy indicator systems were constructed,and the exploratory factor analysis method was used to extract clan-based network and friend network as indicators of social network,and environmental cognition,environmental emotion,environmental values and environmental skills as indicators of environmental literacy,and to measure them.The effects of social networks and sub-dimensions on farmers’ waste separation behaviour,as well as the effects of environmental literacy composite and dimensions(environmental cognition,environmental emotion,environmental values and environmental skills)on farmers’ waste separation behaviour were empirically analysed using the Ordered Probit model,and the results were tested for robustness using hierarchical regression.Based on the empirical analysis,policy recommendations are proposed to improve the rural environmental system and improve the mechanism of rural ecological civilization,which provide theoretical support and practical basis for the innovation of rural domestic waste separation governance in China.The findings of this paper are as follows.(1)Farmers have different degrees of domestic waste separation behaviour,51.47% of farmers choose not to separate and dump all waste together into the bin;8.81% of farmers only separate food waste;12.92% of farmers separate food waste and also separate waste with economic value;26.80% of farmers separate food waste,waste with economic value,toxic and hazardous waste,etc.26.80% of farmers separate food waste,waste with economic value and toxic and harmful waste.This shows that the level of participation and segmentation of waste separation among farmers in the sample area is not high.(2)Social networks have a significant positive influence on the waste separation behaviour of farmers.In terms of sub-dimensions,both the clan-based circle of friends and the circle of friends network also have a significant positive effect on farmers’ waste separation behaviour,but the clan-based network has a slightly smaller effect on farmers’ participation in waste separation compared to the circle of friends network.In addition,the three control variables of gender,education level and membership in the party or village cadres had a significant positive effect on the household’s waste separation behaviour,while the two control variables of age and health status had opposite effects on the household’s waste separation behaviour.(3)Environmental literacy had a significant positive effect on farmers’ waste separation behaviour.The effect of environmental cognition,environmental emotion,environmental values and environmental skills on farmers’ waste separation behaviour was also significant,and the effect of environmental values and environmental emotion on farmers’ waste separation behaviour was greater than that of environmental cognition and environmental skills.(4)Social networks play a positive moderating role in environmental literacy on farmers’ waste separation behaviour.Specifically,when the social network sub-dimension was interacted with the environmental literacy sub-dimension,the clan-based network and the friend circle network each played a significant positive moderating role in the environmental literacy sub-dimension on farmers’ waste separation behaviour,but the difference between the two moderating roles was not significant;when the social network sub-dimension was interacted with the environmental literacy sub-dimension,the social network sub-dimension played a significant positive moderating role in the environmental values,environmental cognition and environmental emotion on farmers’ waste separation behaviour.The positive moderating effect of social network integration on environmental values,environmental perceptions and environmental emotions on farmers’ household waste sorting behaviour was significant,and the positive moderating effect of the three dimensions became smaller in turn.Only in the case of environmental skills,the social network composite did not have a positive moderating effect on farmers’ waste segregation behaviour and was not significant.Based on the findings of the study,in order to improve the environmental governance capacity of farmers and promote the participation of farmers in the separation of domestic waste,this paper proposes to strengthen social networks,cultivate environmental literacy,improve rural environmental systems and sound rural ecological civilization mechanisms to promote sustainable development of the rural environment.