The relationship between income level and participation in household waste recycling in two residential estates in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Abstract

In 2003, about 73% population had access to recycling bins but the domestic household waste recycling rate was only 8%. To study the reasons behind this low recycling rate, a bi-method survey with questionnaire and unobtrusive observation were launched at 22 residential buildings in two housing estates. The survey results found that high-income households demonstrated a slightly higher participation in recycling household waste than the low-income households. The findings also showed that the factors of "environmental concerns" and "personal inconvenience" were the key considerations amongst the seven factors of both types of households, while the different combining forces of the seven factors discriminated different participation levels recyclers and non-recyclers. The findings of this study are presented in details in the following paper. The conclusions of this study found that government should employ different behavioural change techniques to different types of households in order to improve the household waste recycling rate.