Limited collection and recycling problems in Europe

In today’s technological era, the issue of e-waste (electronic waste) management is becoming increasingly important. Although several studies have discovered and proposed innovative technologies to both enable and improve the recycling performance of e-waste, end-users often dispose of outdated products incorrectly.

This study aimed to investigate the criteria that influence user behavior regarding e-waste recycling. There are seven criteria: intention to recycle electronic waste, awareness of the importance of electronic waste recycling, environmental concern, attitude toward electronic waste recycling, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, willingness to pay for electronic waste recycling waste. These criteria are considered most relevant in the literature.

A student questionnaire, interviews with academic experts and various analytical techniques (i.e. descriptive statistics, the analytical hierarchy process, econometric regression) were used to identify the most relevant criteria for e-waste recycling. With ‘willingness to pay’ (WTP) as a reference criterion, the other six criteria were examined as variables. The goal was to uncover the relationships between them and determine which ones had the greatest impact on WTP.

The results showed that individuals with strong pro-social attitudes were more aware of the need to recycle electronic waste. Furthermore, those who properly disposed of waste in specialized centers were more aware of the need for recycling. The study highlights the importance of raising awareness at the group level to promote e-waste disposal as a social norm.