Influencing Factors on the Household-Waste-Classification Behavior of Urban Residents: A Case Study in Shanghai

Modeling Predictors of Medication Waste Reduction Intention in Algeria: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior

COVID-19 caused an increase in the demand for medications, which led to an increase in pharmaceutical waste and there is no doubt that this contributes to environmental pollution. Hence, it became necessary to search for how to protect and improve the environment by encouraging the behavior of medication waste reduction. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting intentions to reduce medication waste. Considering this, we develop an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework by incorporating the constructs of moral obligation, environmental awareness, and medication waste risk perception. Using the convenience sampling method and based on a self-administered questionnaire, a total of 225 usable responses were collected in five Algerian cities. The results showed that positive attitudes (β = 0.316, p < 0.001), moral obligation (β = 0.291, p < 0.001), environmental awareness (β = 0.227, p < 0.001), perceived behavior control (PBC) (β = 0.151, p = 0.001), greater perceived risks (β = 0.127, p < 0.001), and subjective norm (β = 0.096, p < 0.05) significantly and positively influence the medication waste minimization intention. Furthermore, our analyses revealed that the extended TPB model explained 73.40% of the intention variance. In conclusion, we have explored the intentions, and there may be a gap between intent and actual behavior. Therefore, we recommend future studies to examine the factors affecting the actual behavior of medication waste reduction and to investigate environmental ethics and religious commitment as predictors of waste reduction intentions.

External Factors Impacting Residents' Participation in Waste Sorting Using NCA and fsQCA Methods on Pilot Cities in China

Recycling waste is important as it can help to reduce environmental pollution caused by "waste siege". Source classification is an important part of the municipal solid waste (MSW) sorting process. The factors that prompt residents to participate in waste sorting have been debated by scholars in recent years; however, there are not many papers that focus on the complex relationships between them. This study reviewed the literature that concerns residents' participation in waste sorting, and it summarized the external factors that might influence residents' participation. Then, we focused on 25 pilot cities in China, and we analyzed the configuration impact of external factors on residents' participation using a necessary condition analysis (NCA) and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). We found no consistency between variables, nor was there one single condition that caused residents to participate in waste sorting. There are two main methods (environment-driven and resource-driven) that can help achieve a high participation rate, and three methods that can cause a low participation rate. This study provides suggestions for the implementation of waste sorting in other cities in China, as well as developing countries, with an emphasis on the importance of public participation.

Identifying the influencing factors and constructing incentive pattern of residents' waste classification behavior using PCA-logistic regression

With the acceleration of urbanization, domestic waste has become one of the most inevitable factors threatening the environment and human health. Waste classification is of great significance and value for improving urban environmental quality and promoting human well-being. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we added external and socio-economic factors to systematically examine how they affect residents' waste classification behavior (WCB). We collected 661 valid data through a questionnaire survey conducted in Jinan, a pilot city for waste classification in China. Key driving factors were identified by combining binary logistic regression and the principal component analysis. The results showed that the elderly, women, and people with higher education are more likely to participate in waste classification. Attitude, collaborative governance, and institutional pressure positively affect WCB, while subjective norm and infrastructure have a negative effect. Knowledge mastery and degree of publicity are positively and significantly related to WCB, but other perceived behavioral control sub-variables negatively affect WCB. Based on the results and status of waste classification in Jinan, we propose the multi-agent linkage governance pattern from various dimensions to explore a powerful guiding incentive that can enhance WCB and provide a reference for waste management policymakers.

Discovering dominant ammonia assimilation: Implication for high-strength nitrogen removal in full scale biological treatment of landfill leachate

Landfill leachate containing high-strength nitrogen is generated in domestic waste landfilling. The integration of anoxic and aerobic process (AO) based on nitrification and denitrification, has been a mainstream process of biological nitrogen removal (BNR). But the high-strength organics as well as aerobic effluent reflux might change the biochemical environment designed and operated as AO. In view of the nitrogen balance in a full scale landfill leachate treatment plant with two-stage AO, we found that approximately 90% removal of total nitrogen (TN) and ammonia (NH₄⁺-N) focused on primary anoxic and aerobic stage. Meanwhile, the less nitrate and nitrite in the aerobic effluent were incapable of sustaining denitrification or anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox). The high reflux flow from aerobic to anoxic process enabled the similar microbial community and functional genes in anoxic and aerobic process units. However, the functional genes involving ammonia assimilation in all process units showcased the highest abundance compared to those correlated with other BNR pathways, including nitrification and denitrification, assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrate reduction, nitrogen fixation and anammox. The ammonia assimilation dominated the removals of TN and NH₄⁺-N, rather than other BNR mechanism. The insight of dominant ammonia assimilation is favorable for illustrating the authentic BNR mechanism of landfill leachate in AO, thereby guiding the optimization of engineering design and operation.

An Intelligent Waste-Sorting and Recycling Device Based on Improved EfficientNet

The main source of urban waste is the daily life activities of residents, and the waste sorting of residents' waste is important for promoting economic recycling, reducing labor costs, and protecting the environment. However, most residents are unable to make accurate judgments about the categories of household waste, which severely limits the efficiency of waste sorting. We have designed an intelligent waste bin that enables automatic waste sorting and recycling, avoiding the extensive knowledge required for waste sorting. To ensure that the waste-classification model is high accuracy and works in real time, GECM-EfficientNet is proposed based on EfficientNet by streamlining the mobile inverted bottleneck convolution (MBConv) module, introducing the efficient channel attention (ECA) module and coordinate attention (CA) module, and transfer learning. The accuracy of GECM-EfficientNet reaches 94.54% and 94.23% on the self-built household waste dataset and TrashNet dataset, with parameters of only 1.23 M. The time of one recognition on the intelligent waste bin is only 146 ms, which satisfies the real-time classification requirement. Our method improves the computational efficiency of the waste-classification model and simplifies the hardware requirements, which contributes to the residents' waste classification based on intelligent devices.

Influence of multi-dimensional environmental knowledge on residents' waste sorting intention: Moderating effect of environmental concern

With the rapid increase in household waste, environmental degradation becomes more serious. It is imperative to promote waste sorting in China. This study proposes an extended KAB model to explore the impact mechanism of different dimensions of subjective environmental knowledge on urban residents' waste sorting intention. The study also explores the moderating role of environmental concern in the relationship between three types of subjective environmental knowledge and attitude toward waste sorting. Based on 308 valid questionnaires, through structural equation model, multiple regression analysis, and simple slope test, we found that system knowledge, action-related knowledge, and effectiveness knowledge all have positive impacts on residents' attitudes toward waste sorting, and effectiveness knowledge has the most significant impact. Meanwhile, environmental concern positively moderates the relationship between system knowledge, effectiveness knowledge, and attitude toward waste sorting. This study makes an important theoretical contribution to enrich the existing literature on residents' waste sorting behavior and provides theoretical insights for governmental waste sorting policy formulation at the practical level.

The Perception and Attitude of Farmers toward Domestic Waste Classifications: A Case Study on Wusheng County, Sichuan Province, China

The effective treatment of rural domestic waste is the key to solving rural environmental pollution and realizing rural ecological revitalization. Giving full play to the main role of farmers' domestic waste classification can improve the efficiency and effect of domestic waste treatment. To explore the key factors affecting the farmers' perception, attitude, and behavior of domestic waste classification, this study with 318 farmers in Sichuan Province as the research object, the research framework of domestic waste classification behavior was constructed based on the theory of planned behavior, and then, the logistic regression model was used for the empirical test. The results show that the farmers' education levels, subjective norms, relatives' and neighbors' views on waste classification, farmers' awareness regarding the negative environmental impacts caused by waste, farmers' private benefits, and farmers' views on the waste management ability of local governments are significantly positively correlated with the classification behavior of farmers' domestic waste. The distance between farmers' houses and waste collection points is significantly negatively correlated with the classification behavior of farmers' domestic waste. This paper provides a certain theoretical reference for realizing the reduction, resourcization, and positive development of rural domestic waste management in China.