Imagine a case in which a person puts food, clothes, furniture, or paper etc. (items which may be collected or used by those who need it) near the waste bin rather than inside the waste bin. Now two questions: 1) is this behaviour "littering" or "re-cycling"; and 2) Is this behavior an indication of irresponsible personality or an indication of "good will" and "altruism" which overpowers the social norm "it is not OK to put the waste near the bin".
The relevance of this case is this. The smart bin systems are offered as important candidates to reduce waste management costs. But the problem is that the cycle of monitoring starts with throwing the waste IN the bin for the sensors to sense the waste (and in some systems it is also required to close the bin lid, too since the sensor is embedded on the lid). If the waste is put NEAR the bin, then there is nothing the smart bin can do. This leads to bad data, and unability to fully benefit the system. Example: there are now huge waste containers underground which could be collected with a towing vehicle, requiring only one staff. However, if there is a couch or say some other heavy item near the container (which was put there with the intention of someone to benefit), more staff and time will be needed.
The literature on "Littering behavior" seem to focus on the dark side of littering. It is an irresponsible, antisocial act. But what if some types of littering (or what this situation may be named?) is caused by "good intentions", (altruism ), or social norms themselves (helping/thinking other people is good) ? This will be the main question of a study about citizens waste disposal/littering preferences. Especialy we want to explore the effect of altruism on the behavior to put reusable/collectable waste near the bins.
I would be grateful if you could share your opinions about this problem and inform us about similar works or studies since we are having difficulty finding a similar perspective on this problem.
All starts with appropriate education. In years of global economic crisis this has to be combined with motivation of any kind and more soecifically economic. People can understand that environmental issues have to be solved and limited. More direct results are needed to boost recycling and circular economy theory and practice.
In cases of municipalities that have sufficient funds. If they are not able to cover expences? Collecting msw or recyclable waste streams is not so easy in some countries as in theoretical strategic planning. There are external factors that can totally change the desired result.
Thanks Mohammad and Constantinos. Lack of recycling option is one of the reasons. However , as Constantinos says, it is not always possible to provide recycling options, either due to financial choices of the municipalities or lack of recycling culture. In one of the municipalities, there were even no waste bins, the major argued it was much cheaper and faster to collect waste without bins:). Yet our case is a little bit different in nature. The problems is how can we teach people not to be altruistic, and teach them not leave some types of waste (food, clothes, furniture etc.) for others to benefit.
That is the case in greece. Huge quantities of waste never reach processing facilities due to the fact you just mentioned. These wastes are " moved out" the processing path and driven elsewere in order some people to benefit by selling them. Main problem with that routine is that municipalities are losing most important source of money.
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