Factors influencing willingness to accept different waste management policies: empirical evidence from the European Union

Improving waste management strategies with more collaborative participation and responsibility of different public and private agents is a matter of increasing concern for academia and policy makers. Based on data from 28 European countries, the present study, unlike other previous studies analyzing the influence of individual drivers for waste generation or recycling, evaluates different options for waste management: government-based, “fair” consumer and producer responsibility. For this, the influence of individual and socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, education level and occupational status), contextual variables (rural or urban, country of origin) and the environmental awareness of 23,976 individuals are considered. Being a woman, being well-educated, having a good job and living in a rural or small town increase the probability of being a fair consumer, while men and people living in a large town are more willing to entrust this responsibility to firms. The government-based solution is only chosen by low-educated people. Finally, individuals with the highest environmental awareness and effort prefer to pay, while those who are less environmentally conscious prefer government action. The findings show that factors explaining individual acceptance of these different waste management policies (WMP) are essential for implementing proactive and preventive approaches to enhance responsibility and involvement of all stakeholder groups (consumers, firms and institutions).