Susanna Mancinelli

Prevention and Recycling Behaviours Across the EU

This chapter investigates the correlation between individual motivation and households’ waste minimization and recycling. Individuals act based upon intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the first one being something that comes from within the person itself and the second being conditioned on the receiving of an external reward. We aim to assess if one type of motivation is more correlated with one of the two behaviours (minimization and recycling) or the other. Using Eurobarometer data, we note that extrinsic motivation has a higher effect on sorting habits than on minimization behaviour while the reverse is true for intrinsic motivation. Conversely, intrinsic motivation plays a major role in prevention and for the recycling of particular kind of wastes such as hazardous waste.