Elsevier

Waste Management

Volume 32, Issue 11, November 2012, Pages 2163-2176
Waste Management

Part II – The effect of data on waste behaviour: The South African waste information system

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.05.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Combining the process of learning and the theory of planned behaviour into a new theoretical framework provides an opportunity to explore the impact of data on waste behaviour, and consequently on waste management, in South Africa. Fitting the data to the theoretical framework shows that there are only three constructs which have a significant effect on behaviour, viz experience, knowledge, and perceived behavioural control (PBC). Knowledge has a significant influence on all three of the antecedents to behavioural intention (attitude, subjective norm and PBC). However, it is PBC, and not intention, that has the greatest influence on waste behaviour. While respondents may have an intention to act, this intention does not always manifest as actual waste behaviour, suggesting limited volitional control. The theoretical framework accounts for 53.7% of the variance in behaviour, suggesting significant external influences on behaviour not accounted for in the framework. While the theoretical model remains the same, respondents in public and private organisations represent two statistically significant sub-groups in the data set. The theoretical framework accounts for 47.8% of the variance in behaviour of respondents in public waste organisations and 57.6% of the variance in behaviour of respondents in private organisations. The results suggest that respondents in public and private waste organisations are subject to different structural forces that shape knowledge, intention, and resultant waste behaviour.

Highlights

► This empirical study explores the relationship between data and resultant waste knowledge. ► The study shows that “Experience, Data and Theory” account for 54.1% of the variance in knowledge. ► A strategic framework for Municipalities emerged from this study.

Introduction

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEAs) developed and implemented the South African Waste Information System (SAWIS) in 2006, as part of the National Waste Management Strategy Implementation (NWMSI) project. A project funded by the South African and Danish Governments. The Department requires certain public and private waste organisations to report to SAWIS on the monthly tonnages of waste that they landfill, treat, and reprocess.

An empirical study conducted by the lead author in 2006 (Godfrey and Scott, 2011) explored whether SAWIS could create opportunities beyond simply being a tool for data collection. The authors examined whether collecting data for SAWIS could also build the waste knowledge of those persons tasked with the responsibility of collecting and reporting the data. The authors posited that this new waste knowledge could lead to changes in personal behaviour and ultimately changes in the way organisations manage their waste. The 2006 study, which involved interviews with participant organisations, adopted a qualitative research design, based on an interpretive approach. A theoretical framework of learning (Miller and Morris, 1999) was used to guide the research, as it supported the empirical investigation into the role of data in building knowledge. However, while the theoretical framework provided a useful means of interpreting the interview findings, the results showed that knowledge is a necessary, but insufficient condition for resultant action (Godfrey and Scott, 2011). The theoretical framework was found to be overly simplistic for understanding the role of waste data in a developing country context such as South Africa, in that it did not account for all of the evidence gathered, particularly the existence of behavioural and situational influences (Godfrey and Scott, 2011).

The authors followed up this research from 2006, with a second empirical study in 2011. The aim of this second study is to build a more conceptually inclusive theoretical framework that supports the initial research findings and provides a basis to further explore the research question “Can the collection of data for a national waste information system change the way waste is managed in South Africa, such that there is a noticeable improvement?” The authors present an overview of two social-psychological theories with the aim of incrementally constructing a novel theoretical framework that links the collection of waste data with behaviour change. This framework is then applied to the empirical data collected in the 2011 study. The paper focuses specifically on waste management in South Africa, a developing country in a process of social and political transformation, which faces many waste management challenges (Savage, 2009).

Given the wealth of findings from this second empirical study, the results are presented in two parts. The first paper (Godfrey et al., 2012) re-examines the relationship between data, theory, and experience in building waste knowledge in South Africa, in 2011. In this, the second paper, the authors move beyond the role of waste data in building knowledge, to examining the influence of waste data on waste management behaviour.

Section snippets

Knowledge as a precursor to action

Environmental information disclosure, science communication and environmental education are three theoretical fields that have provided significant contributions to understanding the impact of environmental information on behaviour (Weiss, 2002, Denisov et al., 2005, Stephan et al., 2009).

Information strategies have been successfully used internationally as policy instruments to elicit desired policy outcomes by influencing human behaviour, either directly or indirectly (Weiss, 2002, Antweiler

Participants

Participants in the research were limited to those organisations that had submitted data to the SAWIS in 2009 and 2010. Two main types of organisations report data to SAWIS, namely public organisations (municipalities), and private organisations (itself of two types: industrial and private waste companies). Only 32 organisations in South Africa reported to SAWIS in both 2009 and 2010. In addition, two organisations reported only in 2009, and six organisations only in 2010, giving 40 unique

Global model

The statistics related to the fitted structural model are given in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5. A relative goodness of fit (GoF) of ⩾0.9 in considered by Vinzi et al. (2010) to indicate a reasonably well supported model. The overall assessment is that the structural model presented here is sound. Dillon–Goldstein’s ρdg which is preferred to Cronbach’s α for assessing internal consistency reliability (Sijtsma, 2009), is good to very good across all latent variables, with all variables

Conclusions

Combining the process of learning and the theory of planned behaviour into a refined theoretical framework, provides an opportunity to further explore the research question “Can the collection of data for a national waste information system change the way waste is managed in South Africa, such that there is a noticeable improvement?” Fitting the data to this theoretical framework shows that there are only three regressors that have a significant effect on behaviour, namely experience, knowledge

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the South African Department of Environmental Affairs for providing support for further research on this topic; the Danish Foreign Ministry through Danida, who provided project development assistance to the South Africa Government; and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for providing the financial support for this research.

References (82)

  • I. Ajzen et al.

    The influence of attitudes on behavior

  • V. Allee

    The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence

    (1997)
  • W. Antweiler et al.

    Toxic release inventories and green consumerism: empirical evidence from Canada

    Canadian Journal of Economics

    (2003)
  • C.J. Armitage et al.

    Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: a meta-analytic review

    British Journal of Social Psychology

    (2001)
  • Azjen, I., 2006. Constructing a TpB Questionnaire: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations. Accessed 25 June 2010....
  • A. Bandura

    Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change

    Psychological Review

    (1977)
  • A. Bandura

    Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency

    American Psychologist

    (1982)
  • A. Bandura

    Social cognitive theory

  • A. Bandura et al.

    Analysis of self-efficacy theory of behavioural change

    Cognitive Therapy and Research

    (1977)
  • S. Barr

    Factors influencing environmental attitudes and behaviors. A UK case study of household waste management

    Environment and Behaviour

    (2007)
  • P.A. Bell et al.

    Environmental Psychology

    (1990)
  • Bosman, C., Boyd, L. (2008). Environmental Compliance for Local Government – Challenges and Solutions for the South...
  • Canty, A., Ripley, B.D., 2011. Boot: Bootstrap R (S-Plus) Functions 2011. R Package Version...
  • S.S. Chung et al.

    The value-action gap in waste recycling: the case of undergraduates in Hong Kong

    Environmental Management

    (2007)
  • A.C. Davison et al.

    Bootstrap Methods and Their Application

    (1997)
  • Denisov, N., Christoffersen, L., 2001. Impact of Environmental Information on Decision-Making Processes and the...
  • Denisov, N., Folgen, K., Rucevska, I., Simonett, O., 2005. Impact II: Telling Good Stories. Grid-Arendal Occasional...
  • Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 2006. Implementation Plan for Transfer of the Waste Permitting...
  • T.J. DiCiccio et al.

    Bootstrap confidence intervals

    Statistical Science

    (1996)
  • Department of Water Affairs & Forestry (DWAF), 1998. Waste Management Series. Minimum Requirements for Waste Disposal...
  • A.H. Eagly et al.

    The Psychology of Attitudes

    (1993)
  • Engledow, S., Groeners, E., 2008. Provincial integrated waste management plans and cooperative governance. In:...
  • Environment Agency, 2001. Waste Minimisation: An Environmental Good Practice Guide for Industry....
  • M. Finger

    From knowledge to action? Exploring the relationships between environmental experiences, learning, and behaviour

    Journal of Social Issues

    (1994)
  • M. Fishbein et al.

    Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behaviour: An Introduction to Theory and Research

    (1975)
  • Fishbein, M., Triandis, H.C., Kanfer, F.H., Becker, M., Middlestadt, S.E., Eichler, A., 2001. Factors influencing...
  • J.J. Francis et al.

    Constructing Questionnaires BASED on the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A Manual for Health Services Researchers

    (2004)
  • S. Fudge et al.

    Behaviour change in the UK climate debate: an assessment of responsibility, agency and political dimensions

    Sustainability

    (2011)
  • G.T. Gardner et al.

    Environmental Problems and Human Behaviour

    (1996)
  • O. Gelo et al.

    Quantitative and qualitative research: beyond the debate

    Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science

    (2008)
  • A.C. Gielen et al.

    Application of behaviour-change theories and methods to injury prevention

    Epidemiologic Reviews

    (2003)
  • Cited by (7)

    • Public understandings of E-waste and its disposal in urban India: From a review towards a conceptual framework

      2018, Journal of Cleaner Production
      Citation Excerpt :

      An individual's attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control have a positive influence on E-waste disposal intention. An individual's attitude towards a particular behaviour is a function of one's perception of the behaviour as positive or negative, right or wrong, pleasant or unpleasant, interesting or boring and consequences of performing the behaviour (Godfrey et al., 2012). For instance, to a significant extent, perceiving recycling to be inconvenient is negatively associated with the participation of people in recycling programmes (Hansmann et al., 2006).

    • Food waste behaviour at the household level: A conceptual framework

      2018, Waste Management
      Citation Excerpt :

      The last section presents the conclusions and policy implications. Many studies have investigated the food waste behaviour using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (see, for example, Barr, 2007; Godfrey et al., 2012; Karim et al., 2013; Stefan et al., 2013; Tonglet et al., 2004). However, these studies had a modest explanatory power of their estimated models ranging from 70 to 80% not explained.

    • Part 1: The role of waste data in building knowledge: The South African waste information system

      2012, Waste Management
      Citation Excerpt :

      It therefore appears to be knowledge, and not data, that is directly responsible for causing operational responses in organisations. This is discussed further in Godfrey et al., (2012). As with data, respondents did not see theory as being a major contributor to building their waste knowledge:

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text