Determinants of household waste recycling behavior: the case of Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

This paper investigates determinants of household waste recycling behavior for six different materials: paper, carton, plastic, metal, glass and cloth using data from the survey “Consumption behavior towards green growth in urban area of Viet Nam”, funded by National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) and logistic regression. My findings reveal that psychological factors towards recycling generally appear to be statistically insignificant. Nevertheless, concern about waste, awareness of inheritance for future generation and satisfaction of waste condition at household’s residency explain their recycling behavior for some materials. Another interesting finding is that the household’s belief of money gained from waste recycling will lead to recycling paper, carton and plastic. Furthermore, the results disclose that income and age in some cases affect the recycling behavior negatively. Moreover, housing characteristics have impact on recycling behavior positively in the case of metal, carton and paper recycling.