College Students’ Willingness to Separate Municipal Waste and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study in Chongqing, China

Xingyu Yang, Xiaoyi Chen, Xinyue Xiao, Haode Xi and Shiwei Liu
Additional contact information
Xingyu Yang: School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Xiaoyi Chen: School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Xinyue Xiao: School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Haode Xi: School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Shiwei Liu: School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: College students are the engine of the sustainability of the future, and their awareness of environmental protection and waste classification is very important for the sustainable implementation of urban solid waste separation projects. Chongqing is one of the first 46 waste separation pilot cities in China. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the municipal waste separation behavior of college students and its influencing factors. Data from a total of 814 questionnaires among college students from sixteen universities in Chongqing were collected. Results showed that most college students think it is necessary to separate waste, and they have executed it in their daily life. Students have a high accuracy in classifying perishable waste, but they are not familiar with the classification of waste lamps, bulbs (14.00%), expired drugs (30.71%), toilet paper (11.3%), peel (18.80%) and brick kilns (27.76%). Special attention should be paid to distinguishing recyclables and other wastes. The principal factors that affect students’ willingness to classify waste are attitude, situational factors and publicity and education, which are embodied in students’ attitude towards waste separation, the surrounding environmental hygiene, the convenience of waste separation, the ease of understanding of waste separation marks and the degree of publicity and education of the school. Four measures are recommended for improving students’ willingness to separate municipal waste based on this investigation.

Keywords: college students; waste separation; influencing factors; Chongqing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12914/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12914/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12914-:d:684925

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().