Do Public Awareness and Behaviors in Rural Domestic Waste Classification Help Reduce COVID-19? a Case Study in China

Abstract

Rural domestic waste classification (RDWC) is one of the main strategies for waste management, which plays a significant role in the circular economy and sustainable management. As one of the first pilot cities of waste classification in China, Hangzhou took the lead in promoting the classification and recycling of rural domestic waste. Based on the probability sampling procedure, this study focuses on the influencing factors of residents' awareness and behaviors toward RDWC in Hangzhou rural areas. The results of the questionnaire survey show that the perception of the importance of RDWC is weak in rural areas of China. Moreover, regression analyses show that the public's RDWC awareness is positively influenced by the cleanliness of waste rooms, age, and educational level. And their RDWC behaviors are negatively influenced by human supervision but positively influenced by the attitude to waste classification, satisfaction with the situation of RDWC and environment. Besides, exploring the relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and the waste classification performance shows cities with better waste classification performance have fewer confirmed cases. These results imply that the proper waste classification methods and supporting infrastructure facilities could be fitted to other rural areas.

Influencing Factors on the Household-Waste-Classification Behavior of Urban Residents: A Case Study in Shanghai

“…Zheng et al [ 10 ] and Wang [ 11 ] verified that the household-waste-classification standard is related to whether residents can understand and easily implement waste classification. Scientific and reasonable classification standards can promote residents’ waste-classification awareness and improve their enthusiasm to participate in waste classification.…”

Critical Infrastructures: Reliability, Resilience and Wastage

“…), for example in the work by Kamble et al [52], where a comprehensive list is provided on the barriers relating to IoT implementation. Regarding Ecology and Health, COVID-19 was discussed in [74,77,79], with other topics such as the pervasiveness of takeaway culture in [33] and other people-driven behaviours relating to the proper sorting and separation of waste [72] causing strain on landfill and collection networks. Uncertainty over weather patterns [56] and climate change [44,54] were also listed as barriers.…”

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