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To investigate factors encouraging or deterring recycling, telephone interviews were used to study recycling behavior, attitudes, and knowledge of 221 randomly selected adults in a suburban city that had begun a citywide curbside recycling program within the past year. Approximately 40% reported participation in the curbside recycling program, and nearly 20% more claimed that their household had been recycling in other ways. Most demographic variables did not predict participation in the curbside recycling program, nor did general environmental attitudes and behaviors, though simple conservation knowledge did. The main significant predictors of curbside recycling were a few demographic variables, attitudes, and behavioral variables that pertained specifically to recycling. As predicted, factor analyses showed that there was no general factor underlying (a) various environmental attitudes and (b) various environmental behaviors, all of which might seem on an a priori basis to be related. Implications of the findings for understanding and promoting curbside recycling are discussed.

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Commingled curbside recycling, a system where household residents put all recyclable materials in one container, is a new form of recycling that has been initiated to decrease the amount of household waste sent to landfills. In a suburb with a new commingled program, a mail survey of environmental and recycling attitudes was sent to 603 households with a 76% response rate. Observations of actual recycling behavior showed a 68% average participation rate on five successive collection days, with a total participation rate of 91% over that period. Based on these observations, the level of self-reported participation was slightly overstated. Relevant recycling knowledge was the most significant predictor of observed recycling behavior, and content-specific motivations for or against recycling discriminated between frequent and infrequent recyclers. Relevant recycling knowledge and a few specific attitudinal measures were significant predictors of self-reported recycling behavior.