How Similar are Recycling and Waste Reduction?

The present research examined the relations between people’s self-reported recycling and waste reduction behaviors, their reasons or justifications for engaging in these behaviors, and their future orientation. The most engaging results of the project pertained to the observed relations between the consideration of future consequences and respondents’ self-reported recycling and waste-reduction behavior. The findings indicate that respondents’ concern for the future and their ratings of the importance of various justifications were related to recycling behaviors in a consistent manner. The relations between the same predictors and waste-reduction behaviors, however, were more complex. The findings also revealed that respondents’ tendencies to engage in waste-reduction behaviors were unrelated to their tendencies to recycle; that is, persons who perform one set of behaviors are not necessarily likely to perform the other. Some practical implications of these findings are also presented for developers of programs designed to increase public awareness of the need to reduce waste.