Household recycling in Cyprus: attitudes, barriers and behaviour

The paper examines the factors, which influence the recycling behaviour in Cyprus, a country at an early recycling stage. These factors include socio-demographic variables, environmental attitudes and knowledge, and especially policy controllable institutional factors like barriers to recycling. A random sample of 301 consumers has been surveyed with questions on the above determinants of recycling and their actual recycling behaviour. Recycling rates were found to be higher for women and older people. Education and environmental attitudes have a positive impact on recycling, while a high level of perceived barriers has a negative association with the recycling effort. The relationship between environmental attitudes and recycling rate has been found to be moderated by the level of perceived barriers to recycling. The empirical exploration of recycling factors is a very important issue for policy makers. They can improve their recycling policies with research results based on actual recycling behaviour.