Examining the Environmental Awareness of Rural Households in Terms of Household Waste Management and Purchasing Decisions

Abstract

Achieving sustainability is a shared interest which concerns both macro- and micro-level actors in the economy. Households' environmental awareness can be assessed in several aspects, where the use of resources (energy use; products, and equipment purchased) and the amount of waste produced are the key elements. Conscious purchasing behaviour and, on the other hand, waste reduction is the focus of the present study, being essential not only for sustainability but also for the implementation of a circular economy. In our study, we examined the practice of households in and around Sopron by random sampling and analysed the data with SPSS statistical program. Our aim was to highlight the differences in the attitudes of people living in villages, urban agglomerations, and the city center towards selective waste collection. Our expectation was that the examined demographic variables have an effect on environmentally conscious purchasing behavior and selective waste collection. The main consequences of the research were that the population of Sopron and its surroundings is mostly aware of selective waste collection (supported by the values obtained for the willingness and disposal of selective waste) and the commitment is independent of gender, but influenced by place of residence.