Compliance with household solid waste management in rural villages in developing countries

Environmental deterioration in rural areas, among which household waste pollution is representative, is harming the overall eco-socio development of developing countries. Drawing on field data from a survey of 100 villages (679 valid sample households) from five provinces across China in 2012, this paper uses Probit regression to examine the factors that influence rural residents' solid waste disposal behaviors. The results show that only 36% of the sampled villages offer garbage collection and disposal services, among which only 81% of rural residents dump garbage in designated dumping sites. Distance between a residence to garbage collection facilities and village layout are negatively significant with rural residents' household solid waste disposal behavior while local economic level and household educational level are positively significant with rural residents' solid waste disposal behaviors. The results suggest that the presence of any organized garbage disposal site strongly encourages proper disposal behavior, most commonly at levels of compliance in the 80% and above range. The clear implication is that structural factors are the most important for ensuring proper solid waste disposal and that multiple collection points should be encouraged in areas where the distance from a disposal site is over 2 km. This paper provides practical implication for researchers and policy maker on solid waste management in developing countries.