Individual and situational determinants of plastic waste sorting:an experience sampling method study protocol

BACKGROUND: Plastic waste management is one of the most challenging problems of our time. Until now, only 9% of the produced plastics has been recycled. In order to increase recycling, a behavior change towards sorting of plastic waste is needed. Therefore, the main aim of the study is to gain insight in the individual and situational determinants associated with plastic waste sorting behavior. The Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-environmental Behaviour will be used as the theoretical framework. This framework assumes that individual egoistic and hedonic values are negatively related to pro-environmental behaviour, whereas individual biospheric and altruistic values are positively related to pro-environmental behaviour. Situational cues can activate these values, resulting in (non) pro-environmental behaviour. Taking the Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-environmental Behaviour into account, this study will test the hypothesized associations between individual and situational determinants and plastic waste sorting behavior, using an ecological momentary assessment approach (Experience Sampling Method, ESM). METHODS: A signal-contingent scheme with semi-random intervals will be used for the ESM questionnaire. Over a period of seven consecutive days, an ESM-based smartphone app will prompt participants ten times a day to fill in a short questionnaire containing questions about situational determinants and plastic waste sorting behaviour. Participants will also complete an online questionnaire before and after the study measuring the individual determinants and plastic waste sorting behaviour. DISCUSSION: ESM has many benefits over traditional surveys, such as improved ecological validity and the possibility to explore temporal relationships. The disadvantages of ESM are mainly related to the burden for the participants and the possibility of reactivity effects. The results will provide insight into the relationship between situational cues, individual values and plastic waste behaviour. The practical implications of the findings of this study can be of interest for policy makers in order to reach plastic waste reduction targets. Furthermore, the situational cues that activate values, which increase or decrease plastic waste sorting, can be targeted in interventions. The results of this study can also be relevant for further research studying and stimulating pro-environmental behaviour in general. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-021-00596-5

Bridging the Dynamics of Food Systems Change in Sub Saharan Africa to the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Human Development Index

With increasing worldwide household incomes, a higher diversification in people’s diet is found. The high, urban, population growth, which is connected to an urban-rural population shift and lifting per capita incomes, is changing the dietary patterns in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). For the past decades, global nutrition transition has been seen as an indicator describing the human development, in which people worldwide choose a more Western diet above their traditional diet. Easier accessibility has induced households to increase the intake of non-staple food (meat, fish, dairy products, edible oils, fruit and vegetables), with a decline of the share of staple food (cereals, pulses, including roots and tubers). A shift to a western diet, for SSA will have strong competitive effects on the SDGs, in temporal and spatial divergent patterns of urban and rural areas. To understand how these changes in these resource flows affect environmental pressure, we studied micro- and macrodata on nutrition and use of energy and water of 11 low and lower middle-income SSA countries, at regional and national scales. Patterns show large differences among and in countries; main variables seem to be the energy pathway (country policy), the degree of urbanisation (economic hotspot) and the shift in diet (urban/rural wealth). To bridge the temporal and spatial differences on these socio-ecological systems, we studied the use of the Human Development Index (HDI) to interconnect not only the ecological data but also the socio-economic data at national and subnational (urban – rural) scales. Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus using HDI as an integrator of human well-being and economic growth (GDP/GNI) looks promising to understand the trends in resource flows on human development and its impact on the environment at divergent scales

Bridging the Dynamics of Food Systems Change in Sub Saharan Africa to the Water-Energy-Food Nexus:Human Development Index

With increasing worldwide household incomes, a higher diversification in people’s diet is found. The high, urban, population growth, which is connected to an urban-rural population shift and lifting per capita incomes, is changing the dietary patterns in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). For the past decades, global nutrition transition has been seen as an indicator describing the human development, in which people worldwide choose a more Western diet above their traditional diet. Easier accessibility has induced households to increase the intake of non-staple food (meat, fish, dairy products, edible oils, fruit and vegetables), with a decline of the share of staple food (cereals, pulses, including roots and tubers). A shift to a western diet, for SSA will have strong competitive effects on the SDGs, in temporal and spatial divergent patterns of urban and rural areas. To understand how these changes in these resource flows affect environmental pressure, we studied micro- and macrodata on nutrition and use of energy and water of 11 low and lower middle-income SSA countries, at regional and national scales. Patterns show large differences among and in countries; main variables seem to be the energy pathway (country policy), the degree of urbanisation (economic hotspot) and the shift in diet (urban/rural wealth). To bridge the temporal and spatial differences on these socio-ecological systems, we studied the use of the Human Development Index (HDI) to interconnect not only the ecological data but also the socio-economic data at national and subnational (urban – rural) scales. Assessing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus using HDI as an integrator of human well-being and economic growth (GDP/GNI) looks promising to understand the trends in resource flows on human development and its impact on the environment at divergent scales

Individual and situational determinants of plastic waste sorting: an experience sampling method study protocol

Abstract Background Plastic waste management is one of the most challenging problems of our time. Until now, only 9% of the produced plastics has been recycled. In order to increase recycling, a behavior change towards sorting of plastic waste is needed. Therefore, the main aim of the study is to gain insight in the individual and situational determinants associated with plastic waste sorting behavior. The Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-environmental Behaviour will be used as the theoretical framework. This framework assumes that individual egoistic and hedonic values are negatively related to pro-environmental behaviour, whereas individual biospheric and altruistic values are positively related to pro-environmental behaviour. Situational cues can activate these values, resulting in (non) pro-environmental behaviour. Taking the Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-environmental Behaviour into account, this study will test the hypothesized associations between individual and situational determinants and plastic waste sorting behavior, using an ecological momentary assessment approach (Experience Sampling Method, ESM). Methods A signal-contingent scheme with semi-random intervals will be used for the ESM questionnaire. Over a period of seven consecutive days, an ESM-based smartphone app will prompt participants ten times a day to fill in a short questionnaire containing questions about situational determinants and plastic waste sorting behaviour. Participants will also complete an online questionnaire before and after the study measuring the individual determinants and plastic waste sorting behaviour. Discussion ESM has many benefits over traditional surveys, such as improved ecological validity and the possibility to explore temporal relationships. The disadvantages of ESM are mainly related to the burden for the participants and the possibility of reactivity effects. The results will provide insight into the relationship between situational cues, individual values and plastic waste behaviour. The practical implications of the findings of this study can be of interest for policy makers in order to reach plastic waste reduction targets. Furthermore, the situational cues that activate values, which increase or decrease plastic waste sorting, can be targeted in interventions. The results of this study can also be relevant for further research studying and stimulating pro-environmental behaviour in general