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. 2020 Jun 24;17(12):4539.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124539.

Should Waste Separation Be Mandatory? A Study on Public's Response to the Policies in China

Jing Hou  1 , Yujing Jin  2 , Feiyu Chen  2
Affiliations

Should Waste Separation Be Mandatory? A Study on Public's Response to the Policies in China

Jing Hou et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The implementation of effective waste separation policy is an important pathway to guide the public to actively participate in the waste separation action. This study focused on exploring the Chinese public's response to the rigid and flexible waste separation policies from the perspectives of understanding, willingness to support, and willingness to implement. We used a big data mining technique to obtain 10,057 entries of the Chinese public's response to the mandatory waste separation policy. The results showed that "public's understanding-support willingness-implement willingness" regarding mandatory waste separation policy was characterized by a U-shaped response. Specifically, the public's understanding and willingness to implement the rigid waste separation policy were relatively high in the short term, but their willingness to support this policy was relatively low and became increasingly low over time. Particularly, "troublesome" implementation was deemed to the main reason for the public's low willingness to support the rigid waste separation policy. In addition, we further obtained the sample data of the Chinese public regarding the flexible waste separation policy through the situational survey. Contrary to the response characteristics of mandatory waste separation policy, the results showed that "public's understanding-support willingness-implement willingness" regarding flexible waste separation policy was characterized by an inverted U-shaped response, and the Chinese public showed more positive sentiment regarding the willingness to support and implement. The results have important implications for guiding the public to actively participate in the waste separation action.

Keywords: flexible; public’s response; rigid; waste separation policy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The roadmap of the research.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Public’s response to the rigid waste separation policy: understanding-support willingness-implement willingness.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Trends in public’s understanding-support willingness-implement willingness regarding the Shanghai waste separation policy.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The keywords presentation of Chinese people’s positive and negative sentiment texts to the rigid waste separation policy (partial).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Network relationship diagram of high-frequency keywords for Chinese people’s positive and negative sentiment texts regarding the rigid waste separation policy.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Public’s response to the flexible waste separation policy: understanding-support willingness-implement willingness.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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