Title: Recycling behaviour of people in South Africa

Authors: R.O. Anyasi; H.I. Atagana

Addresses: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 0003, South Africa ' Institute for Nanotechnology & Water Sustainability, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 0003, South Africa

Abstract: In this paper the behaviour of households towards recycling as a sustainable means of waste management was studied. The whole essence was to establish the impact of such behaviour in limiting the success of recycling practises. A total of 400 randomly selected households in the suburb of Claremont in the city of Cape Town, South Africa, were used in the study. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire targeted at the head of each household in the area. Analysis of the results showed that 67.3% of the sampled households do not recycle waste. Lack of basic recycling education and infrastructure inadequacy negatively deters the interest for recycling. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant and positive relationship (r = 0.89, p = 0.003) (significant level at p 0.05) between waste management interests and the recycling ability of individual households. SWOT analysis shows need for more convenient recycling depots and environmental awareness.

Keywords: recycling survey; household waste management; Upper Claremont; people/s behaviour; SWOT analysis; South Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2023.130720

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2023 Vol.31 No.3, pp.325 - 338

Accepted: 04 Jul 2020
Published online: 04 May 2023 *

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