Village Rules,environmental Literacy And Farmers’ Willingness To Participate In The Classification Of Domestic Waste

Owing to the rapid development of rural areas,the production and discharging of domestic waste are ever—increasing,causing a serious impact on the ecological environment and farmers’ life quality in rural sector.Although the centralized treatment of domestic waste has improved farmers’ living environment,there exists some problems,such as rough treatment way,low level of classification and resource utilization,and the neglect of farmers’ actual participation,which affect the sustainability and practical effect of rural domestic waste treatment.Therefore,exploring the implementation of the classification of rural domestic waste and improving farmers’ participation are beneficial to optimizing the current treatment methods of rural domestic waste,promoting the continuous treatment of rural domestic waste,building “ecological and livable”countryside,and realizing rural revitalization.Comprehensively using literature research method,questionnaire survey method,empirical measurement research methods,this study studied the existing literature,and theoretically analyzed the internal mechanism of the influence of two core factors,village rules(incentive,regulation,and publicity)and environmental literacy(environmental awareness,environmental skills,environmental values,environmental attitude),on the participation willingness of household waste classification.Using mediating effect model and basing on 1052 samples of Hubei,Henan provinces,this study discussed the principles and paths of the impacts of village rules and environmental literacy on the farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste,and verified that environmental literacy had mediating effect between village rules and farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.The main conclusions are as follows.First,the current level of the classification of domestic waste in the surveyed area is not high,only 35.36% of the farmers have carried out the classification of domestic waste.However,70.44% of the farmers were willing to participate in the classification of domestic waste,and the participation willingness was relatively high overall.Statistics show that faremrs who are the male,younger,have higher education and village cadres,are more willing to participate in the classification of domestic waste.In addition,farmers have a high degree of cognition of the environmental and social benefits of the classification of domestic waste,but a relatively low degree of cognition of its economic benefits.Group-based statistical results show that farmers with high environmental literacy,village incentive,village regulation and strong publicity in their villages are more willing to participate in the classification of domestic waste.Second,village rules can impact on farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste significantly positively.Incentives,such as rewarding subsidies,honorary title,can promote farmers’ active participation of the classification of domestic waste.Village regulation,including economic punishment,notification,and the canceling of preferential,enable farmers to participate in the classification of domestic waste in order to avoiding penalty and constraints.Publicity,including banner,propaganda wall,radio,the village meeting,has subtle impacts on improving farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.Compared with regulation and publicity,village incentives have a more obvious promoting effect on farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.Third,environmental literacy has a significant positive impact on farmers’ willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.The improvements of farmers’ environmental awareness and environmental skills are conducive to improving their willingness to participate.Correct environmental values and positive environmental attitudes can also significantly promote their willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.Compared with environmental awareness,environmental values and environmental attitudes,farmers’ environmental skills have a more obvious promoting effect on their willingness to participate in the classification of domestic waste.Fourth,environmental literacy has mediating effects between village rules and farmers’ willingness to participate,and the logical relationship between the three variables can be expressed as “village rules—environmental literacy—farmers’ willingness to participate”.The mediating effects of environmental literacy between village rules and farmers’ willingness to participate have a total of 10 paths,can be expressed respectively as “incentive—environmental awareness—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“incentive—environmental values—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“incentive—environmental attitude—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“regulation— environmental cognition—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“regulation—environmental values—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“regulation—environmental attitude—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“publicity—cognitive environment —farmers’ willingness to participate”,“publicity—environmental skills—farmers’ willingness to participate”,“publicity—environmental values—farmers’ willingness to participate” and “publicity—environmental attitude—farmers’ willingness to participate”.The policy implications of this study are as follows: First,farmers’ sense of ownership can be cultivated.And farmers’ sustainability of environmental literacy should be strengthened.In the meanwhile,the positive guidance of farmers can be paid more attention,for improving their sense of participation and happiness,as well as environmental literacy.Second,the incentive mechanism of villages should be optimized,and the guiding role of village incentives should be paid attention to.Material,honorary incentives and other incentives can be used to improve the farmers’ participitation enthusiasm,providing material guarantees and solving the farmers’ worries in the process of participation.Third,the punishment mechanism of villages should be clarified to form substantial constraints.The relevant laws as well as regulations should be established and improved.At the same time,informal regulations which have village characteristics and can be accepted by villagers,should be formulated for forming multiple constraints on farmers’ classification of domestic waste.Fourth,publicity and guidance should be strengthened,and improve farmers’ environmental protection awareness and environmental literacy.Mainstream media such as broadcast and bulletin board can be used to create a strong atmosphere of protecting environment in the village.New media platforms,such as We Chat and short video,can be used to improve farmers’ environmental awareness.Through technical training,demonstration visits and other activities,farmers’ knowledges and skills about the classification of domestic waste can be increased.