Document Detail


Domestic waste recycling, collective action and economic incentive: the case in Hong Kong.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20619628     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Efficacy of waste recycling is one of the key determinants of environmental sustainability of a city. Like other pro-environmental activities, waste recycling cannot be successfully accomplished by just one or two people, but only by a concerted effort of the community. The collective-action dilemma creates a common underlying difficulty in formulating workable solutions to many environmental problems. With a view to the non-excludability of the outcome, rationality drives people to free-ride efforts of others in waste recycling. To solve this free-rider problem, some scholars suggest the use of economic incentive. This article attempts to study the impacts of reward schemes on waste recycling behaviour of residents in 122 private housing estates in Hong Kong. The study is differentiable from the others as the latter mainly focus on domestic waste recycling in low-rise low-density housing while this one looks into the same in a high-rise high-density residential setting. According to the results of analyses on a set of aggregate data, reward schemes are found to have a significant positive relationship with the per-household weight of recyclables collected, keeping other things constant. The research findings suggest that economic incentives do work in promoting waste recycling in Hong Kong. Practical and policy implications follow.
Authors:
Yung Yau
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2010-07-08
Journal Detail:
Title:  Waste management (New York, N.Y.)     Volume:  30     ISSN:  1879-2456     ISO Abbreviation:  Waste Manag     Publication Date:  2010 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-10-11     Completed Date:  2010-12-22     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9884362     Medline TA:  Waste Manag     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  2440-7     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Affiliation:
Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China. y.yau@cityu.edu.hk
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Behavior Control
Hong Kong
Humans
Motivation*
Recycling / economics,  methods*
Waste Management / economics,  methods*
Waste Products / analysis,  statistics & numerical data
Chemical
Reg. No./Substance:
0/Waste Products

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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