*3.5. Participation in Recycling and Waste Separation Practices*

A total of 62% respondents indicated that they were involved in some extent of recycling practice, while 28.0% practised waste separation. The Chi-Square test also indicated the significance between recycling and source separation practices, where about two-fifth of recyclers adopted source separation (Table 11). In addition, a significant association between demographic profile and source separation practice was revealed through the Chi-Square test. These included age group, marriage status, educational level, and duration of stay (Table 12).

**Table 11.** Association between recycling and source separation participation.



**Table 12.** Association between demographic profile and source separation participation.

Tables 13–16 show the statements asked in Section E of the questionnaire, where each respondent was able to choose multiple answers (reason statements) resulting in varying numbers of frequency recorded across the tables. Protecting the environment was rated as the most motivating reason to participate in recycling, consisting of about one quarter of the total frequency. That the ranking was immediately followed by the feeling of satisfaction in anticipating that waste would become a new resource and their continuous effort would influence other household members and neighbours as the reasons for recycling, whereas the skill of handling and sorting the recyclables was rated as the least important reason to participate in recycling (Table 13).

Three reasons voted the most by the majority of the respondents for practising waste separation are as follows (Table 14):


**Table 13.** Reasons to participate in recycling.


**Table 14.** Reasons to participate in source separation.


**Table 15.** Reasons to not participate in recycling.



**Table 16.** Reasons to not participate in source separation.

When asked about the reasons for not practising recycling, time consuming was ranked as the most important consideration. Absence of an influencer at home, issues of convenience, and accessibility to the recycling/collection centre, as well as the lack of knowledge of recyclable wastes were also among the most selected reasons that set the barriers to recycling practice among the respondents (Table 15). A similar ranking of reasons (except for no home influencer) was revealed by respondents who did not participate in waste separation (Table 16).

When asked about action taken when facing uncertainty regarding the waste category, most of the respondents would place the item in the common trash and only a handful would refer to the online resources for reference (Table 17).


