Residents' behaviors, attitudes, and willingness to pay for recycling e-waste in Macau

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 106; pp. 8 - 16
• Main Authors: Song, Qingbin, Wang, Zhishi, Li, Jinhui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15.09.2012; Elsevier; Academic Press Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Attitude; Attitudes; Behavior; Behaviors and attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Collection; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Consumer behaviour; e-waste; Electronic equipment; Electronic waste; Electronic Waste - economics; Electronics; Environment management; Environmental policy; Family Characteristics; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Households; Humans; Logistic Models; Macau; Male; Middle Aged; Ownership; Policies; Public Opinion; Questionnaire survey; Recycling; Recycling - economics; Refuse Disposal - economics; Refuse Disposal - methods; Regression; Residence Characteristics; Residents; Social Class; Surveys and Questionnaires; Waste management; Waste recycling; Willingness to pay; WTP; Young Adult; Asia; Macau; China; Macao; ISEW, China, People's Rep., Macau; e-waste; Questionnaire survey; Macau; WTP; Behaviors and attitudes; Questionnaire; Attitude; Environmental management; Behavior; Wastes; Recycling; Sedentary; Willingness to pay
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.03.036

Large quantities of e-waste are presently being generated in Macau, but since recycling facilities and laws on e-waste still need to be developed, most e-waste cannot currently be properly treated. Moreover, little is known about residents' behaviors, attitudes, and their willingness to pay (WTP) for recycling e-waste. These issues are discussed in this study, based on a questionnaire survey on household electronic product usage. In 2010, “Life span completed” was the primary reason respondents abandoned their electronic products, accounting for about 37.97% of responses; the main disposal methods of e-waste in Macau were “Retailers retrieve from consumer” and “Sale to a recycling corporation.” While having little understanding of e-waste disposal issues, most residents were still willing to hand their e-waste into the government for centralized collection. In addition, the respondents gave “telephone reservation” as their preferred collection method. Finally, the residents' WTP in Macau was estimated by the logistic regression method. It was found that education level, age and household income were the significant factors affecting residents' WTP. The monthly mean WTP was 20.03MOP (2.50 US dollar) per household, and the annual WTP was approximately 40,185,067 MOP (5,023,133 US dollar) for all of Macau. The results of our study can help managers develop more effective environmental management policies for e-waste disposal. ► Behaviors, attitudes, and WTP on recycling e-waste in Macau were firstly analyzed. ► Most e-waste in Macau flowed into informal sectors, and wasn't treated properly. ► Education Level, Age and Household Income were significant factors affecting WTP. ► Total annual value of WTP was approximately 40 million MOP for all of Macau.