Recycling Behaviour of Township Consumers in South Africa. An Explanation Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour

K. Mercy Makhitha () and Thomas Dobbelstein ()
Additional contact information
K. Mercy Makhitha: University of South Africa
Thomas Dobbelstein: Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University

A chapter in Advancements in Sustainable Development, 2025, pp 179-200 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Recycling, as a waste management strategy, has become imperative for nations globally. As more and more climatic challenges take place, recycling could be used as a solution to some of the climate change problems. South Africa (SA) has a high throwaway rate due to low participation in recycling, which leads to waste ending up in landfills. Although the country has made significant strides in educating businesses and households on the need for recycling, however, much is still to be done to ensure that households are involved in recycling. While studies have determined recycling intention in South Africa, including those studies that applied the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), few have targeted the areas known as townships in South Africa. The purpose of this study is to determine the recycling behaviour of township consumers by applying the TPB. This study specifically investigates the direct effect of subjective norms, attitude and perceived behavioural control on recycling intention as well as the effect of recycling intention on recycling behaviour of township consumers. The study further determines the mediation effect of recycling intention on the relationship between personal norms, attitude and perceived behavioural control and recycling behaviour of township consumers. The analysis is based on 411 quality checked interviews among township consumers across SA. The results of the regression analysis showed that perceived behavioural control, attitude and social norms have a significant effect on recycling intention of township consumers. The study also found that the relationship between perceived behavioural control, attitude and social norms with recycling behaviour is mediated by the recycling intention of township consumers. The study provides solutions to policy makers and organisations dealing with waste management issues.

Keywords: Recycling; Theory of planned behaviour; Recycling behaviour; Township; Consumers; Subjective norms; Attitude; Perceived behavioural control; Recycling intention; Municipality; Recycling process; Households; Sustainable development goals; Government; Recycling programmes; Waste management; Suburbs; Service delivery; City/ies; Municipal waste; Black people; Facilities; Awareness; Knowledge; Reuse; Landfills; Mediation; Regression analysis; Policy makers; Sustainability; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:csrchp:978-3-031-86337-0_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031863370

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-86337-0_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().