Study of the effect of political measures on the citizen participation rate in recycling and on the environmental load reduction

• Published in: Waste management (Elmsford) Vol. 27; no. 8; pp. S9 - S20
• Main Authors: Matsui, Yasuhiro, Tanaka, Masaru, Ohsako, Masahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2007; New York, NY Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Behavior; Community Participation; Conservation of Natural Resources; Environment; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS; Exact sciences and technology; Forecasting; Humans; LIFE CYCLE; Logistic Models; MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; MINIMIZATION; Models, Theoretical; Other wastes and particular components of wastes; Pollution; RECYCLING; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS; Surveys and Questionnaires; WASTES; Sensitivity analysis; Regression analysis; Recycling; Life cycle (environment); Forecast model; Modeling
• ISSN: 0956-053X; 1879-2456
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2007.02.014

Obtaining the cooperation of citizens to participate in separate waste collection is essential to create a recycling-oriented society. In this research, the degree of change in the citizen participation rate, which occurs when the contents of political measures such as the raising of awareness, provision of information, and the conditions of collection services were changed, was estimated together with the effect on the reduction in environmental load. A questionnaire survey was conducted, targeted at residents of Itabashi Ward, while logistic regression analyses were also conducted to create predictive models for recycling behavior, and sensitivity analyses of the models were carried out to estimate the increase in citizen participation rate achievable through the implementation of various political measures. It was found that the effect of “thorough perception of information” was the largest, followed by “minimization of evaluation of trouble” and “thorough perception of efficacy of measures.” The effect of the improvement in the citizen participation rate on the reduction in environmental load was also evaluated quantitatively by life cycle inventory analyses. It was indicated that “maximization of perception of information” had the greatest effect. However, the reduction effect with “paper packs” and “PET bottles” was relatively small compared with that of “bottles/cans.”