What makes people more willing to dispose of their goods rather than throwing them away?

• Published in: Resources, conservation and recycling Vol. 156; p. 104682
• Main Authors: De Ferran, Florence, Robinot, Eliabeth, Ertz, Myriam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.05.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Attitudes; Business administration; Disposition; Humanities and Social Sciences; Motivations; Product characteristics; Redistribution behavior; Disposition; Attitudes; Product characteristics; Redistribution behavior; Motivations; redistribution behavior; disposition; motivations; product characteristics; attitudes
• ISSN: 0921-3449; 1879-0658
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104682

•People-specific factors are stronger enablers of the redistribution instead of scrapping products than product-specific ones.•Attitudes and motivations are stronger facilitators of the redistribution instead of the scrapping of products.•Several catalysts exist for each redistribution behavior: for example, donating is favored by the motive to make other happy. People often need to make decisions regarding the goods around them, particularly when they wish to discard them. Yet, several options are available to them, some being less detrimental to the environment than others. Redistribution practices, in particular, appear as more environmentally friendly than throwing away. This article identifies people's product redistribution behaviors and identifies the factors that account for the selection of various redistribution behaviors over the throwing away of products. We conduct a qualitative study with 18 people followed by a quantitative study involving 507 participants. The findings suggest counterintuitive insights. It appears that product-specific factors such as the perceived condition and the perceived polluting nature of the products are not strong determinants to favor redistributing products rather than throwing them away. Rather, consumer-specific factors such as past experiences, people-specific attitudes and motivations, seem to be the main catalysts favoring redistribution behaviors over the throwing away of products. Besides, donating is significantly more influenced by pro-social motives and attitudes whereas reselling draws on consumers’ market transaction motives. This research has profound implications and potential applications for real world collection of products. The core implications of these findings suggest that managers need to focus on consumer perceptions and the development of programs or systems that nurture the perception of redistribution behavior as being positive for others and for themselves, and instilling redistribution as a habit, instead of focusing on the way consumers perceive the condition or the polluting nature of their products.