Resources Science ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (12): 2370-2381.doi: 10.18402/resci.2020.12.09

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Impact of domestic waste pollution perception and social capital on the farming households’ sorting of waste: Based on the survey of 1374 farming households in Shaanxi Province

JIA Yajuan1,2(), ZHAO Minjuan1()   

  1. 1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
    2. School of Management, Xi’an University of Finance and Economics, Xi’an 710100, China
  • Received:2020-01-09 Revised:2020-06-15 Online:2020-12-25 Published:2021-02-25
  • Contact: ZHAO Minjuan E-mail:jia-ya-juan@163.com;minjuan.zhao@nwsuaf.edu.cn

Abstract:

Farming households are the main agents of rural domestic waste sorting. Their level of sorting directly relates to the effectiveness of rural domestic waste sorting and the success or failure of beautiful countryside construction. Based on the micro-data of farmers’ waste sorting behavior, this study combined individual level and collective level factors to analyze the influencing mechanism of farmers’ domestic waste pollution perception and social capital on waste sorting, and used the ordered probit model to conduct an empirical test on the data from the survey of 1374 farming households in the rural areas of Shaanxi Province. The results show that the pollution perception of domestic waste at the individual level played obvious roles in improving waste sorting the stronger the farmers’ perceive the pollution and impacts caused by randomly stacked and unsorted domestic waste on the ecological environment, community environment, and physical and mental health, the higher the waste sorting levels. Social networks, trust on institutions, social participation, and social norms as social capital at the collective level had significant positive impacts on waste sorting, but interpersonal trust had no significant effect on the level of sorting, which indicates that the farmers who had higher frequency of social interactions, higher degree of trust in institutions, more active participation in the public affair of rural waste management, and believed that village waste management is satisfactory tend to exhibit a higher level of domestic waste sorting behavior. In addition, females had higher levels of domestic waste sorting than males, and low-income families had higher levels of waste sorting than high-income families. Therefore, to achieve sustainable sorting and treatment of rural domestic waste and the comprehensive construction of an ecologically livable new countryside, we need not only to promote waste sorting by strengthening farmers’ pollution perception, but also to build a good community environment. Through network communication and information sharing to strengthen farmers’ communication frequency, improve farmers’ trust in institutions and their participation in public affairs, and strengthen the community self-discipline mechanism, farmers’ domestic waste sorting levels can be improved.

Key words: rural domestic waste, farmers' level of waste sorting, perception of domestic waste pollution, social capital, Ordered Probit model