Economic incentive in enhancing community waste separation and collection: A panel data analysis in China.

While incentive mechanisms have been proven to motivate residents to separate their waste, empirical research is still needed to determine whether this separation behaviour could be maintained over time. The main objective of this paper is to investigate waste separation management activities in the city of Dongying, China, as a case study to clarify how local community citizens' waste separation participation and recycling activities change over time cross-sectionally under the influence of an economic incentive mechanism - PS. This study used least square dummy variable analysis to investigate local waste separation behaviour in 98 communities over 22 months. Results showed that community resident waste participation and recycling behaviour tend to grow in the early stages and gradually show saturation without growth in the middle and late stages. This result implies limitations to the incentive mechanism, such that it could only motivate a part of residents to participate in waste separation; for those unaffected by financial incentives, it was suggested that educational or compulsory means be used to make them separate their waste.

The influence of residents' behaviour on waste electrical and electronic equipment collection effectiveness.

Government agencies have implemented regulations to reduce the volume of waste electrical and electronic equipment to protect the environment and encourage recycling. The effectiveness of systems through which waste electrical and electronic equipment is collected and recycled depends on (a) the development and operation of new programmes to process this material and (b) on information dissemination programmes aimed at manufacturers, retail sellers, and the consuming public. This study analyses these two elements. The main focus is to better understand household residents' behaviour in regards to the proper methods of handling waste electrical and electronic equipment and possible storage of the obsolete equipment that brings disturbances with collection of the waste equipment. The study explores these issues depending on size of municipality and the household residents' knowledge about legal methods of post-consumer management of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Poland, where the collection rate of that type of waste is about 40% of the total mass of waste electrical and electronic equipment appearing in the market.The research was informed by various sources of information, including non-government organisations, Inspectorate of Environmental Protection and Central Statistics Office in Poland, questionnaires, and interviews with the household residents. The questionnaires were distributed to daytime and vocational students from different universities and the customers of an electronic equipment superstore. The results show that a resident's behaviour in regards to the handling of obsolete waste electrical and electronic equipment can significantly reduce the collection rate, especially when the waste is discarded improperly - mixed with municipal waste or sold in scrapyards. It is possible to identify points that are necessary to be improved to achieve a higher collection rate.