IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/recore/v108y2016icp1-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Out of sight, out of mind: Issues and obstacles to recycling in Ontario's multi residential buildings

Author

Listed:
  • Lakhan, Calvin

Abstract

This study examines the obstacles, barriers and opportunities to household recycling in multi residential buildings in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, this study examines how increasing levels of recycling convenience and recycling awareness affect household recycling behavior and building recycling rates. This study was divided into three phases: Phase 1 was designed to assess the perceived barriers to recycling and household participation in source separation programs among 12 multi residential households in the Greater Toronto Area. Phase 2 involved retrofitting each building with floor level recycling chutes (accompanied by a comprehensive recycling promotion and education campaign) and measure how, if at all, recycling rates changed. Phase 3 of the study examined how an alternative promotion and education strategy (that involved putting a recycling bin in building lobbies) affected household recycling awareness and overall recycling rates. Using waste audit data collected over a 9 month period and semi structured surveys in each of the 12 buildings included in the study, it was found that the greatest increase in recycling rates were observed after putting a recycling cart/bin the building lobby entrance. The installation of recycling chutes alone did not increase household recycling awareness or participation in any meaningful way. This finding contravenes previous investigations into multi residential recycling, which found that convenience was the primary determinant to multi residential recycling participation. There is evidence to suggest that there is a complimentary effect between retrofitting units with recycling chutes and placing a Blue Bin in the lobby entrance—while the former provides the enabling conditions to make recycling easier for households, the latter provides the necessary reminder to residents to get them thinking about recycling initiatives in their buildings.

Suggested Citation

  • Lakhan, Calvin, 2016. "Out of sight, out of mind: Issues and obstacles to recycling in Ontario's multi residential buildings," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-9.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:108:y:2016:i:c:p:1-9
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.01.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344916300052
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.01.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lakhan, Calvin, 2015. "Differences in self reported recycling behavior of first and second generation South Asians in Ontario, Canada," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 31-43.
    2. Lakhan, Calvin, 2014. "Exploring the relationship between municipal promotion and education investments and recycling rate performance in Ontario, Canada," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 222-229.
    3. Amy W. Ando & Anne Y. Gosselin, 2005. "Recycling in Multifamily Dwellings: Does Convenience Matter?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 426-438, April.
    4. Scott J. Callan & Janet M. Thomas, 1997. "The Impact of State and Local Policies on the Recycling Effort," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 411-423, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Jing & Yin, Zhaoyun & McBean, Edward A., 2023. "Does information intervention influence residential waste-source separation behavior?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Babak Moeini & Erfan Ayubi & Majid Barati & Saeid Bashirian & Leili Tapak & Khadije Ezzati-Rastgar & Maryam Hashemian, 2023. "Effect of Household Interventions on Promoting Waste Segregation Behavior at Source: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Neeraj C. Hanumante & Yogendra Shastri & Andrew Hoadley, 2022. "Sustainability in a global circular economy: Insights on consumer price sensitivity," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(3), pages 1094-1107, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Starr, Jared & Nicolson, Craig, 2015. "Patterns in trash: Factors driving municipal recycling in Massachusetts," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 7-18.
    2. Pollans, Lily Baum & Krones, Jonathan S. & Ben-Joseph, Eran, 2017. "Patterns in municipal food scrap programming in mid-sized U.S. cities," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 308-314.
    3. Abbott, Andrew & Nandeibam, Shasikanta & O'Shea, Lucy, 2011. "Explaining the variation in household recycling rates across the UK," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 2214-2223, September.
    4. Ida Ferrara & Paul Missios, 2012. "A Cross-Country Study of Household Waste Prevention and Recycling: Assessing the Effectiveness of Policy Instruments," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(4), pages 710-744.
    5. Moh, YiingChiee & -->Abd Manaf, Latifah, 2017. "Solid waste management transformation and future challenges of source separation and recycling practice in Malaysia," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Gilli, Marianna & Nicolli, Francesco & Farinelli, Paola, 2018. "Behavioural attitudes towards waste prevention and recycling," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 294-305.
    7. Abbott, Andrew & Nandeibam, Shasikanta & O'Shea, Lucy, 2017. "The Displacement Effect of Convenience: The Case of Recycling," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 159-168.
    8. Marie Briguglio, 2016. "Household Cooperation In Waste Management: Initial Conditions And Intervention," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 497-525, July.
    9. Timothy K. M. Beatty & Peter Berck & Jay P. Shimshack, 2007. "Curbside Recycling In The Presence Of Alternatives," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(4), pages 739-755, October.
    10. Jenkins, Robin R. & Martinez, Salvador A. & Palmer, Karen & Podolsky, Michael J., 2003. "The determinants of household recycling: a material-specific analysis of recycling program features and unit pricing," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 294-318, March.
    11. Gu, Qianxin & Chen, Yang & Pody, Robert & Cheng, Rong & Zheng, Xiang & Zhang, Zhenxing, 2015. "Public perception and acceptability toward reclaimed water in Tianjin," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA), pages 291-299.
    12. Hua Zhang & Zong-Guo Wen, 2014. "Residents’ Household Solid Waste (HSW) Source Separation Activity: A Case Study of Suzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-21, September.
    13. Chenyu Lu & Yang Zhang & Hengji Li & Zilong Zhang & Wei Cheng & Shulei Jin & Wei Liu, 2020. "An Integrated Measurement of the Efficiency of China’s Industrial Circular Economy and Associated Influencing Factors," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-21, September.
    14. Helén Williams & Fredrik Wikström & Katarina Wetter-Edman & Per Kristensson, 2018. "Decisions on Recycling or Waste: How Packaging Functions Affect the Fate of Used Packaging in Selected Swedish Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Thomas C. Kinnaman & Don Fullerton, 2002. "The Economics of Residential Solid Waste Management," Chapters, in: Don Fullerton & Thomas C. Kinnaman (ed.), The Economics of Household Garbage and Recycling Behavior, chapter 1, pages 1-48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Briguglio, Marie & Delaney, Liam & Wood, Alex, 2018. "Partisanship, priming and participation in public-good schemes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 136-150.
    17. Gaetano Musella & Massimiliano Agovino & Mariaconcetta Casaccia & Alessandro Crociata, 2019. "Evaluating waste collection management: the case of macro-areas and municipalities in Italy," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2857-2889, December.
    18. Usui, Takehiro, 2008. "Estimating the effect of unit-based pricing in the presence of sample selection bias under Japanese Recycling Law," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 282-288, June.
    19. Gorm Kipperberg, 2007. "A Comparison of Household Recycling Behaviors in Norway and the United States," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(2), pages 215-235, February.
    20. Hage, Olle & Söderholm, Patrik & Berglund, Christer, 2009. "Norms and economic motivation in household recycling: Empirical evidence from Sweden," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 155-165.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:108:y:2016:i:c:p:1-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kai Meng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.