Pro Environmental Attitude

Pro-environmental attitude is a frequently investigated determinant in recycling behaviour. Likert response scale is the most widely used rating scale to measure attitude by asking people to respond to a topic in questionnaire surveys. This scale measures a series of attitudes that represent the respondent’s adherence to a world view of the relationship between humanity and the environment (Vining and Ebreo, 1990). We might expect that high level of environmental concern would have a direct and positive relation with recycling behavior but the findings are not consistent.

Major studies included in our analysis conclude that environmental concern has a correlation with recycling behaviour. However, some studies report no significant relationship

Generally, they conclude that individuals will recycle if they feel personal responsibility to do so. Moral motives significantly lower the cost associated with household recycling efforts and, as a result, increase recycling participation(Berglund, 2006). Persons with negative motivation towards recycling had greater barriers to recycling than those who were less negatively motivated (Meneses and Palacio, 2005). Specific attitude toward recycling has a high influence on recycling behaviour (Kurz, 2007). Moral norms are important for those attending drop-off sites and less important for kerbside collection owners Bratt, 1999)

The social values are often defined as norms maintained by spouse, children or neighbours who are important for the person. Social values is examined in most publications and they point out some dependence between social norms and recycling behaviour. Noted that family is a dynamic unit and they can influence each other attitude about recycling behaviour. Social norms reveal a direct influence on recycling behaviour, with partners influencing each other and children having a significant influence on the family’s behaviour(Bratt, 1999). The relevance of social pressure exercised by children may be of particular interest in recycling behaviour due to the fact that children often receive environmental education at school(Berglund, 2006). However, several studies have found that social norms will operate if the recycling behaviour is visible to others. These studies suggest that social norms may operate at an early stage of a recycling scheme, but when this recycling scheme is well established people have already had time to develop strong attitudes (positive or negative) and they are not influenced by external social pressure(Hage,