What Motivates Customers To Recycle? Sustainable Consumer Behaviour

Pollution is a problem that humanity faces more and more frequently. Every day we generate increasing amounts of waste and consume more and more exhaustible resources. In this sense, recycling can be considered the response of consumers to the appearance of pollution, being a mediatized concept in the public space. Both through these sources and through the lens of companies, the concept of “recycling” is brought to the attention of consumers. Starting from these considerations, this research aims to identify the best ways to motivate people, as well as analyze recycling behaviour in case of offering a reward. Thus, the research questions are “Do rewards motivate consumers to recycle?” “Do consumers only recycle in the presence of incentives for recycling?” To provide answers to these questions, we started a research together with the retailer Profi Romania. Thus, as part of a pilot project, SGR machines were installed that allow the recycling of plastic packaging and aluminum cans, with customers receiving a reward in the form of a voucher for the recycled packaging. The data provided by the retailer include information on the number of recycled packaging, its type, and weight, as well as the number of vouchers issued and their value. In this case, it was possible to observe the recycling behaviour of consumers under the conditions of offering vouchers, respectively how this behaviour evolves in the absence of incentives for recycling. Most of the studies carried out and presented in the literature analyze aspects related to the importance of recycling, the pillars on which it is based, respectively the types of materials that we should recycle, and under what conditions. The element of novelty that this research brings to the specialized literature is represented by the consideration of motivations (intrinsic, but also extrinsic), considering the recycling behaviour of consumers as a consequence of the motivations that the customer experiences. The results obtained can be generalized for the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) field, the information showing interest for the entire retail field.