SPILLOVER EFFECT FROM HOUSEHOLD RECYCLING BEHAVIOUR TO ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

Globally, there are attempts to improve waste management and promote energy conservation to reduce adverse environmental implications. However, environmental policies are often set in silos without assessing the possibility that the impact of one policy can ‘spillover’ to individuals’ behaviours in other environmental domains. Therefore, a holistic evaluation of environmental policies’ effectiveness is seldom attained, which would otherwise be valuable inputs to policymakers. Despite the amount of research, limited studies were conducted in Eastern countries and few looked at the relationship between recycling and household energy conservation. Thus, it is significant to conduct this study in China to evaluate whether the impact of participating in recycling campaign can ‘spillover’ to households’ energy consumption. To determine the presence, size and type of this spillover effect, difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis was conducted with a panel regression model. The final dataset consists of 25 households from the treatment group which participated in recycling and 81 households from the control group. It was found that spillover effect was positive but only statistically significant when the consumption in “POST1” was compared to the “BASELINE”. Spearman correlations were also conducted to assess the sensitivities of treatment households to the spillover effect. There was a statistically significant correlation between extent of change in energy consumption and total recycling weight only when the consumption in time period of “POST2” was compared to the “BASELINE” consumption. Possible reasons for the results were identified and discussed. These findings can help in formulating environmental campaigns and suggest future research work.