Ecological awareness and attitudes toward solid waste and recycling among tourism students

This study examines the relationship between ecological awareness and attitudes toward solid waste and recycling among students enrolled in associate degree tourism programmes, with implications for the hospitality and tourism sector. Data were collected from 412 students through a structured questionnaire and the proposed model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Ecological awareness was significantly and positively associated with all three dimensions of attitudes toward solid waste and recycling: entrepreneurship and participation (β = 0.399, p < 0.001), belief (β = 0.494, p < 0.001) and interest and sensitivity (β = 0.521, p < 0.001). The strength of these associations varied across dimensions, with the strongest association and the largest explained variance observed for interest and sensitivity (R2 = 0.271), followed by belief (R2 = 0.244) and entrepreneurship and participation (R2 = 0.159). This differentiated pattern is consistent with an awareness–attitude–action gap, in which more action-oriented attitudes are less strongly related to ecological awareness. The findings suggest that higher levels of ecological awareness are linked to more sustainability-oriented attitudes toward waste management, although the relationship is not uniform across attitudinal dimensions. The study highlights sustainability-related attitudes formed during the pre-employment phase, which may shape how sustainability initiatives are interpreted and implemented in professional contexts. Practically, the findings point to the role of tourism education and industry stakeholders in fostering ecological awareness and integrating waste management topics into tourism education. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings represent associations rather than causal relationships.