Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges in Management, Economics and Accounting
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Role of Waste Pickers in Individuals’ Waste Separation Behavior
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Metehan Feridun Sorkun, Prof. Dr. Şükrü Özen, and Prof. Dr. Seda Can
ABSTRACT:
Factors explaining waste separation behavior have long been investigated due to the importance of waste separation at source by individuals for the operational effectiveness of municipal solid waste systems. However, the extant literature does not adequately represent the contexts of developing countries because it overlooks the waste pickers who earn their living by sorting the waste. Previous studies have usually examined waste pickers from social and health perspectives. No study has studied how waste pickers relate to individuals’ waste separation behavior. We extend the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain how individuals’ attitudes toward waste pickers are related to their waste separation behavior. We propose that the individuals’ attitudes toward waste pickers influence their waste separation behavior through the ascription of responsibility. Accordingly, as individuals’ attitudes toward waste pickers become positive, they may ascribe less responsibility to themselves by thinking that waste pickers already do it anyway. Alternatively, their positive attitudes may drive them to intend to help them either by leaving their waste without separating for the use of waste pickers or by providing recyclable materials to waste pickers directly after separating their waste. As a part of the project (122K244) funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye, we empirically tested our hypotheses on 670 households in a developing country, Türkiye. The results show that attitudes toward waste pickers have an influence on waste separation behavior, providing important theoretical and managerial insights.
keywords: developing country, municipal solid waste system, recycling behavior, theory of planned behavior