**1. Introduction**

Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and the steep growth in the global population and consumption rate have resulted in increased waste production at an unprecedented rate. In 2016, the worlds' cities generated 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW). East Asia and Pacific regions currently generate most of the world's waste, at 23% (468 million tonnes). However, the fastest growing regions in waste generation are Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the total waste generation is expected to more than double by 2050, making up 35% of the world's waste. The Middle East and North Africa regions are also expected to double their waste generation by 2050. It is also noteworthy that at least 33% of the global MSW is not managed in an environmentally safe manner. Ine ffective waste managemen<sup>t</sup> will cause serious air, soil, and groundwater pollution. This will not only hamper sustainable urban environment but will also threaten the health of residents [1]. Chen et al. shows that, without stringent policy directives, due to both the strong continued growth of the total waste generation and the slow increase of sustainable treatment shares, there is no absolute decoupling

effect for the waste observed as countries become richer (with the exception of Japan, where other institutional and cultural factors may play a role), and there is thus little evidence for a waste-related environmental Kuznets curve [2]. It thus follows that sustainable waste managemen<sup>t</sup> will be a major challenge for many countries, especially developing countries, in the coming decade.

However, e ffective waste managemen<sup>t</sup> is costly, often taking up 20% to 50% of municipal budgets [3]. With limited funding, citizen engagemen<sup>t</sup> involving behavioral change and public participation has become one of the most cost-e ffective means in promoting sustainable waste managemen<sup>t</sup> [4]. Many countries—such as Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand—use behavior-changing variable fees to motivate waste reduction, source-separation, and reuse. In Nepal, the governmen<sup>t</sup> uses results-based financing to create a sustainable behavioral change in waste disposal, while in Jamaica, the governmen<sup>t</sup> employs various educational strategies to induce behavioral change in safe and environmentally-friendly waste disposal practices [1].

In view of the far-reaching environmental and health repercussions arising from continued and increased waste production, sustainable solid waste managemen<sup>t</sup> is every country's business. This is particularly true for China, which has the largest population in the world. Demonstrably, China generates large volumes of MSW annually due to its huge population and high consumption rates. In 2016, about 47 percent (220 million tonnes) of waste in the East Asia and Pacific regions was generated by China, although its daily per capita waste generation rate of 0.43 kg is below the regional average of 0.56 kg [1]. In addressing its increased waste production problems, China has also adopted various environmental behavioral control strategies to induce sustainable household waste generation, separation, and disposal practices. The present article aims to examine the empirical evidence of the determinants of household environmental behavior in MSW managemen<sup>t</sup> in China.

To begin with, the impressive economic growth in China for the past few decades has accompanied rapid and massive urbanization across the country. Inevitably, this has given rise to one of the most formidable challenges facing the country today: the MSW problem. Viewed from China's perspective, MSW includes solid wastes defined under national laws and administrative regulations, as well as solid wastes discharged from residents' daily activities or from the necessary services provided for such activities. In general, MSW is categorized into household solid waste, commercial solid waste, market solid waste, solid waste from street cleaning, solid waste from public facilities, and business-related solid waste. In this paper, we focus our research on the city's daily household solid waste (HSW).

In 2017, the amount of HSW collected and transported to HSW disposal sites and final disposal facilities located nationwide reached approximately 200 million metric tonnes [5]. The massive amount of HSW has intuitively given rise to an urgen<sup>t</sup> need for the governmen<sup>t</sup> to establish a proper solid waste managemen<sup>t</sup> system in order to contain its environmentally destructive e ffects. It may well be that the improper handling of HSW can cause soil contamination, foul odors, water pollution, and other environmental problems, which impair human health and hamper urban sustainable development.

In light of the above, it may be remarked that rapid urbanization and the improvement of people's living standards have significantly raised human environmental awareness and interest in environmental issues, especially in relation to HSW disposal. However, the local communities where 'Not In My Back Yard' (NIMBY) facilities are located, especially in developing countries with high population densities, have quite strongly opposed land acquisitions for the development of solid waste disposal sites. In China, annually, and with more than five anti-incinerator demonstrations, local residents have claimed the relocation of municipal solid waste incineration facilities from 2007 to 2016, and the facility that would benefit the public the most was aborted. This caused a drastic lack of disposal sites or land resources for the safe disposal of HSW [6,7].

In order to address the above issues, the Chinese governmen<sup>t</sup> launched its HSW sorting policy within eight cities in the early 2000s as a sustainable waste managemen<sup>t</sup> pilot project under the auspices of the Ministry of Construction, in order to encourage waste minimization in all of the sectors of the community. Nonetheless, the project was poorly implemented, and failed to achieve its aim as expected. Indisputably, if the HSW problem is left unmitigated, it would exert grea<sup>t</sup> impacts in upsetting the government's vision of an 'Ecological Civilization' (EC).

The EC is a political vision introduced in 2007 by the former president, Hu Jintao. It aims to uphold harmony between humanity and nature as one of the basic strategies to promote sustainable development, especially in relation to pollution reduction, a circular economy, a low-carbon economy, and green development. As regards MSW, the green concept of ecological civilization was formally endorsed under China's Circular Economy Promotion Law in 2009, as discussed below. The EC concept was progressively elevated to the rank of a paramount objective of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 18th National People's Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in 2012. It was further enshrined as a constitutional principle in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 2018 [8].

It is worth reiterating, in light of the foregoing, that the EC vision is distinctly concerned with the orientation of a low-carbon, eco-friendly, and resource-e fficient society that underpins the promotion of a green economy. Here, it may be remarked that proper waste disposal is related to not only the reuse/recycling of resources, but also to the creation of a sustainable society through the optimal utilization of waste as an urban energy source. A case in point is the transformation of household kitchen garbage into biogas. Increasingly, e fforts to promote the separate collection of HSW based on the guiding principles of garbage reduction, recycling, and detoxification have attracted the attention of many individuals in various parts of China in recent years [9].

Generally speaking, solid waste managemen<sup>t</sup> comprises two methods of waste collection, namely, a fixed-price system and a quantity-based pricing system. A municipality with a fixed-price system charges a fixed fee per household or household member for waste disposal, regardless of the amount of garbage originating from the household. The fee is not linked to the amount of garbage discarded, so the system is not very e ffective in reducing the amount of garbage disposed. In contrast, for the quantity-based pricing system, the fee levied for waste disposal changes in accordance with the amount of garbage discarded. One prominent example is the paid garbage bag system, which requires residents to use garbage bags that meet certain standards (designated bags).

Manifestly, there have been various legislations put in place to promote sustainable HSW managemen<sup>t</sup> in China. One of the most prominent legal instruments is China's Circular Economy Promotion Law, which was implemented in 2009, as briefly noted above. It legislates the principles of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. Moreover, the governmen<sup>t</sup> controlling bodies—such as the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)—also play an important role to ensure e ffective law enforcement and observation. The local People's Governments also enact various regulations and measures to strengthen the sustainable disposal and recycling of HSW practices. For example, in 2011, the State Council issued a Notice on the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Work of Municipal Solid Waste Disposal (State Council, 2011, document No. 9) to reinforce sustainable HSW practices [10]. It further introduced new HSW disposal fees based on a 'discarder pays principle', which is similar to the 'polluter pays principle' (those, irrespective of being consumers or producers, who generate it are the ones who pay). Subsequently, e fforts to promote waste sorting and waste reduction via the implementation of the fee-based waste disposal principle have become active at the local governmen<sup>t</sup> level.

Despite these novel e fforts, casual observation on the ground seems to indicate that they have not been able to contribute e ffectively to foster proper waste-sorting habit-formation among the residents. Furthermore, the separation of HSW was also not properly maintained after collection in conformity with the stipulated waste segregation guidelines. Experience shows that waste still remains practically unsorted. Worse yet, the residents were indi fferent to the adoption of the green principles of waste sorting and separation in line with the EC concept. In order to resolve these problems, the State Council issued the Proposed Method of Implementing the Sorting System for Municipal Solid Waste [11] in March 2017, with the aim to mandate the separate collection of HSW in 46 designated cities by the end of 2020.

Against this backdrop, the present study aims to assess the effects of the new mandate on the behavioral change of waste sorting and separation in three selected regions out of the 46 designated pilot cities, namely, Shanghai, Shenyang (Liaoning Province), and Chengdu (Sichuan Province). This is achieved based on questionnaire surveys. In particular, the questionnaire research aims to examine residents' behavior in sorting HSW. This covers the assessment of the factors that contribute to residents' receptiveness of waste separation policies, as well as other variables in relation to sustainable HSW management. The latter include personal demographics, personal attitudes, external moderators such as circumstances and economic incentives, and internal moderators such as environmental concerns and human altruism.

### **2. Literature Review**

The separate collection of HSW makes it possible to sustainably curb the amount of garbage generated at its sources and mitigate its adverse environmental impacts at the final disposal sites. Requiring households to sort garbage, however, burdens the governmen<sup>t</sup> with an enormous cost of monitoring compliance. Therefore, the effectiveness of waste managemen<sup>t</sup> requirements strongly depends on whether the household residents comply with them without being monitored or coerced. However, the reality is that the waste sorting programs, as implemented by the government, often fail to persuasively induce residents to comply with the guidelines as stipulated [12].

That said, to enhance the effectiveness of garbage sorting compliance, it is necessary to influence household residents' waste disposal behavior. Linde'N and Carlsson-Kanyama [13] and Antonides and van Raaij [14] divide the factors that affect residents' waste disposal behavior into external motivational factors and internal motivational factors. External motivational factors include administrative measures, such as laws and regulations, economic measures, information measures, and physical measures. The authors concerned posit that a policy package that combines an assortment of these four measures can affect residents' garbage sorting behavior. Insofar as the internal motivational factors are concerned, environmental knowledge, environmental concern, environmental values and attitudes, behavioral preferences, lifestyle preferences, and social influence are often considered to be some of the important motivating means of behavioral change [8].

On the other hand, Lindhqvist unveiled three factors that promote the separate collection of household garbage, namely, economic incentives, the level of convenience associated with discarding garbage, and information [15]. However, Dahlén and Lagerkvist argue that access to opportunities and places for separate disposal is an important factor affecting the rate of separate collection [16]. In addition, Chappells et al. assert that the introduction of a system that monitors the separate disposal of garbage encourages proper garbage sorting behavior [17]. Others, such as Judge and Becker [18], Linde'N and Carlsson-Kanyama [13], and Ando and Gosselin [19] emphasize the effects of the placement of bins, the ease of sorting garbage, and increased convenience in terms of the timing of garbage collection. Houtven and Morris, however, argue that residential ownership has a noticeable effect on the household's waste generation and disposal behavior [20].

From China's perspective, Ghorbani et al. argue that members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions not only have a stronger environmental awareness, but also a greater willingness to pay for environmental protection activities than the general public [21]. Similarly, Clark et al. claim that being altruistic and having environmentally friendly attitudes affects people's environmentally-conscious voluntary behavior, and that altruistically inclined individuals are more likely to participate in a green electricity program [22]. People with a strong sense of place or belonging to their city or community tend to actively participate in the city's governmen<sup>t</sup> activities. A sense of place may be defined as the meaning ascribed, and the attachment formed, to a place by an individual or communities. This sense of place may be grounded on the emotional values that individuals ascribe to the surrounding environment [23–25]. Another factor that strongly influences

an individual's sense of belonging to their city or community is the sense of one's own status. Here, it is appropriate to remark that, in China, people's household registration cannot be freely changed. Thus, even within a city, there is a stark di fference between those who have an urban household registration and those who have a rural household registration. In view of this, an individual's sense of their own status may impact considerably on their degree of their sense of belonging to their city or community. For this reason, this study takes into account the survey respondents' household registration status, with a view to ascertain the relationship between a sense of place, a sense of belonging, and environmental behavior in relation to HSW disposal.

The above studies provide su fficient indication that there are many factors that influence one's environmental behavior and action. However, as regards China, it is unclear as to what categories of factors or behavioral determinants contribute to drive an individual's environmental behavioral change. Against this premise, what follows is an attempt to examine the motivational forces and other integrative factors that underpin household residents' garbage sorting habits.

### **3. Materials and Methods**

### *3.1. Research Hypotheses and Model*

Environmental behavior is not only related to social and economic factors. We must never lose sight of the fact that it is also unalterably a ffected by the levels of environmental knowledge, environmental awareness, and environmental concern. Following logically from this line of thought, and inspired by the work of Rylander and Allen, we introduce an internal variable of altruistic attitudes into an integrative environmental behavioral framework in order to assess the motivational forces that influence an individual's pro-environmental behavior (Figure 1) [26]. The framework considers demographic variables and knowledge to be the integrative factors that shape individual attitudes towards environmentally friendly behavior. Here, it must be admitted that attitudes do not necessarily influence receptiveness directly, as their e ffect is moderated by multifaceted internal and external variables, such as environmental concern, altruism, information, and economic incentives. The close link between attitudes and receptiveness may be the most tenuous aspect of the model. This study attempts to examine whether individuals' garbage sorting behavior is contingent on their characteristics, social attributes, residential circumstances, or environmental awareness. We also consider whether these factors are correlated with individuals' receptiveness to garbage sorting behavior, to fee-based waste collection, or to policies requiring garbage sorting. Here, it may be noted that our research is premised on self-reported receptiveness, which may be over-stated by the respondents concerned.

**Figure 1.** The research framework.
