Waste recycling as seen by the social sciences - bibliographic revision of the situational variables

Abstract

This article is based on research work (Gonçalves, 1997) into the interconnection of two fundamental elements, the social and the technical element, in the success of any project, in this case paper recycling. A literature revision was carried out, whereby one concentrated essentially on those works that study the relations between the psycho-social factors involved, basically the situational variables and the waste recycling behaviour. The apparent findings were that the situational factors, above all their dependent variables, have a considerable direct effect, whereas the characteristics of each individual (personal variables) explain only a small percentage of the recycling behaviour.