What Drives Households’ Payment forWaste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa’s General Household Survey
Date
2020-10-01
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Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
Safeguarding the environment and its citizens’ health remains one of the key policy
priorities of the governments of many developing and emerging countries. Using the 2017 General
Household Survey (GHS) dataset, this study examines the driving factors a ecting households’
recycling behaviour and payment for waste disposal in South Africa. The methods of data analysis
were based on descriptive statistics and a Bivariate Probit regression model. The descriptive statistics
results indicate that there are 56.29% male-headed and 43.71% female headed households, with an
average age of 49 years. In addition, the study shows that 89.97% of household heads had formal
education with a mean monthly income of 11,099.07 ZAR/650.504 USD. The study also revealed that
22% of the households sampled had access to social grants. The results from the Bivariate Probit
regression model show that household’s income, access to social grants, formal educational attainment
and the age of the household were significant (p < 0.01) driving factors a ecting households’ recycling
behaviour and payment for waste disposal. The study concludes that the households’ socio-economic
factors a ect their recycling behaviour and willingness to pay for waste management in South Africa.
Actions targeted at poverty alleviation and environmental sensitization programmes are key for
facilitating environmental conservation behaviours of households in South Africa in order to achieve
the environmental sustainability Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of the United Nations.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 22 July 2020; Published - 1 October 2020.
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Keywords
environmental safety, recycling behaviour, refuse disposal, Bivariate Probit model, South Africa
Citation
Omotayo, A. O., Omotoso, A. B., Daud, A. S., Ogunniyi, A. I. and Olagunju, K. O. (2020) ‘What Drives Households’ Payment for Waste Disposal and Recycling Behaviours? Empirical Evidence from South Africa’s General Household Survey’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. MDPI AG, 17(19), p. 7188. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17197188.