Does gender matter? Attitude towards waste charging policy and pro-environmental behaviours

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>A waste charging policy had been implemented in major Asian cities like Taipei and Seoul years ago. Hong Kong is not yet to charge household rubbish, which is one of the major municipal solid waste sources. Landfill places will be exhausted in a year or two in the city. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of waste charging policies by exploring relationships among social norms, lifestyles, attitudes towards waste charging policy and pro-environmental behaviour.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>Purposeful sampling was used in this study to recruit university students to take part in the survey. Purposeful sampling helps to make a “highly credible sample” (Gall et al., 2006, p.185). This study distributed questionnaires to respondents aged over 18 years. Among them, there were 404 valid questionnaires (35.6% male; 64.4% female) that were returned with a response rate of 53.9%.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>It is found that attitude towards waste charging policies affects pro-environmental behaviour through lifestyles and social norms. Female respondents’ pro-environmental behaviours are affected by their lifestyles and social norms. But male respondents’ lifestyle is affected by their attitude towards policy. Attitude towards charging policy does not have an impact on young people's pro-environmental behaviours.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>Social acceptance towards any environmental policy is a must for its final outcome. It is because attitude towards any environmental policy is a starting point to affect pro-environmental behaviours. Female respondents are more engaged in pro-environmental behaviour compared to male. Almost all big cities encourage the re-use, re-cycle and reduce of waste. Before designing and implementing relevant policy, stakeholder participation is important. The new environmental policy usually has stricter measures, such as heavier charge on municipal waste. Policymakers are advised to obtain solid arguments and data support to convince stakeholders.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

What are the triggers of household decision-making on waste disposal choices? A gender differentiated analysis

“…This implies that any action capable of improving women's situations such as education, employment, and living standards tends to improve solid waste disposal. This result is in line with Wut et al. (2020) who found that female respondents are more preoccupied with pro-environmental behaviour than the male.…”

“…Environmental concern is dominantly given attention by women. Wut et al., (2020) examined the effectiveness of charging policies by considering the relationships involving social norms, lifestyles, attitudes on waste charging policy and pro-environmental behaviour. They found that female respondents are more concerned in pro-environmental behaviour vis-à-vis male.…”

Managing natural tourism attractions based on visitor reviews: a case study of Golden Beach, Karpaz

“…Koufodontis and Gaki (2020) believe that local policy makers should play a lead role in marketing and maintaining the image of their destination and where necessary, taking action to modify visitor behaviour via their policy framework. Indeed, policy makers have an important role in the sustainable development of Golden Beach given the importance of pro-environmental standards as cited in the constitution and the need to coordinate with an array of agencies to enforce standards, a view shared by Wut et al (2020). In fact, coordination needs to be geared towards addressing the infrastructure gaps in support of the Golden Beach.…”

Environmental Problems: An Analysis of Students’ Perceptions Towards Selective Waste Collection

“…As the university’s student body counts around 13,000 students, the calculated margin of error was of ±3.3%. Starting from the assumption that a student’s gender may impact their behaviors and attitudes, based on existing studies that have already emphasized that ( Vicente-Molina et al, 2018 ; Ramstetter and Habersack, 2020 ; Wut et al, 2020 ), the sample was built taking into account the fact that the respondents’ gender distribution should be a relatively equal one as the aim of the study was to identify certain particularities of the answers related to this variable; being one of the research questions, it was used for the secondary analysis of this research. Thus, a sample of 409 females and 407 males was built.…”