Barriers on the propagation of household solid waste recycling practices in developing countries: State of Palestine example

Abstract

Recycling is one of the management options applied to: minimize the landfilled waste quantity, provide raw materials, and assist in sustaining the environment for future generations. The success of any recycling program globally depends mostly on the active and sustained participation of citizens. The purpose of the conducted research presented in this paper is to investigate the recycling barriers and offer an insight into the motivations that may encourage local population to increase participation in local recycling schemes. The research focused on Ramallah and Al-Bireh district of Palestine, which is a developing country with minimum infrastructure and economics; the raw data were collected using structured questionnaires. The influence of four basic socio-economic factors, namely, gender, level of education, age, and type of residence, on recycling barriers of individuals was recorded and investigated. The results showed that: lack of awareness and information on the process of waste separation and storage are the basic recycling barriers of the local population, whereas financial incentive is the major motivational factor for their active participation. Most importantly, the field research proved that locals are willing to participate in recycling campaigns and almost half of them appreciate the necessity of recycling-green-point’s existence for the collection of segregated waste.