Study On The Behavior And Willingness Of Domestic Waste Sorting Of Urban Residents In China

With the rapid development of economy,the rapid growth of population and the accelerating process of urbanization,the ecological and environmental problems such as environmental pollution,waste of resources and long-term potential risks caused by the surge of urban domestic waste have always been common and prominent,which has become a major challenge restricting China’s ecological protection,high-quality development and people’s yearning for a better life.China urgently needs to strengthen the waste sorting management of domestic waste in order to achieve the goal of waste management of reduction,harmlessness and recycling.From the perspective of sustainable ecology,guided by the principle of ecosystem material cycle,this study summarizes the influencing factors of waste sorting behavior and willingness in the existing literature and theory by using the method of literature analysis,and designs a questionnaire combined with practical interviews.In 2021,a questionnaire survey was carried out across the country(except Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan),and 6954 valid questionnaires were collected(including 3503 urban residents and 3451 rural residents),Correlation analysis and structural equation model were used to explore the influencing factors and mechanism of domestic waste sorting behavior and willingness of Chinese urban residents;Combined with the questionnaire survey data in 2016,the comparative study is used to explore the differences of domestic waste sorting behavior and willingness of Chinese urban residents in different regions and times,and put forward targeted policy suggestions to improve the sorting behavior of domestic waste in China.The main results of this study are as follows:(1)Through the descriptive statistical analysis of samples,it can be seen that the positive aspects of the overall waste sorting behavior of urban residents in China account for a large proportion,but there are also negative manifestations,and the sorting willingness of urban residents is very high.(2)Through the analysis of the influencing factors and paths of waste sorting behavior and willingness,we find that the micro individual environmental attitude and moral level can effectively stimulate the willingness of waste sorting.Willingness,solid waste management and relevant information attention jointly drive waste sorting behavior.Most residents belong to "external driven" stakeholders.Urban residents with higher income have higher recycling awareness and better recycling behavior;Attitude(AT),solid waste management(SWM)and relevant information attention(IA)are consistent with expectations and have a positive impact on willingness(BI),and the impact of the three on willingness is not different(AT→BI,P<0.01;SWM→BI,P<0.01;IA→BI,P<0.01);Willingness,solid waste management and attention to relevant information have a positive impact on behavior(AB),among which solid waste management has the greatest impact on behavior(BI→AB,P<0.01;SWM→AB,P<0.01;IA→AB,P<0.01);Infrastructure and services(F&S)have no significant impact on willingness and behavior,and attitude has no significant impact on behavior(F&S→BI,P>0.05;F&S→AB,P>0.05;AT→AB,P>0.05).(3)The study on the differences of residents’ willingness and behavior of waste sorting in different regions and times shows that economically developed and high population density areas have better willingness and level of waste sorting,and mandatory policies have a significant effect on promoting waste sorting.Among the 31 provincial administrative regions in Jiangsu,Zhejiang and Shanghai,the overall performance of garbage sorting behavior and willingness of urban residents is excellent,while the performance of Western and remote areas is poor;The behavior and willingness of urban residents in the central and eastern regions are significantly better than those in the western region;There is little difference in the level of domestic waste sorting willingness between urban residents and rural residents,but in terms of actual behavior,the overall performance of actual waste sorting behavior of urban residents is slightly better;In 2016,18.18%of the respondents in Shanghai had been classified as urban residents,while in the survey data of 2021,the proportion of this category reached 72.34%.The mandatory policy has a significant effect on promoting the practical behavior of domestic waste sorting of urban residents.Based on the above results,in order to improve the sorting behavior of domestic waste in China,the following targeted policy suggestions are put forward:establish and improve the relevant laws and regulations and local documents of urban domestic waste management,and establish well operated and targeted domestic waste management countermeasures;Promote the coordinated development between regions and between urban and rural areas,and improve the urban-rural integrated waste transfer and treatment system;Strengthen the publicity and education of relevant knowledge of waste sorting and recycling;Improve the awareness of garbage collection service and provide a clean and tidy sorting environment;Improve residents’ awareness of ecological and environmental protection.Based on the national research and the comparison of different regions and times,this paper enriches the research on the influencing factors and paths of waste sorting,puts forward targeted suggestions for giving better play to the macro-control role of policies,and also provides empirical reference and theoretical supplement for follow-up research.