Household Disposal Behavior and Attitudes Towards the Recycling of Waste Household Electrical Appliances in Qingdao, P.R. China

In this paper, the authors conducted a survey of 1700 households to investigate and analyze the urban and rural households´ waste household electrical appliances (WHEA) disposal habit, as well as their attitudes on recycling modes and the deposit-refund policy. The investigation results show that more than half of urban and rural households´ WHEA are sold to private collectors (called non-formal collector in China), only less than 10% WHEA collected by the government or other formal collectors. And significant preference differences exist in recycling modes and relative policies between urban and rural households. More than half of urban households accept the deposit-refund policy, but most rural informants reject this policy. Key recommendations will then be outlined concerning the future strategic development to encourage and facilitate households to engaging in formal WHEA recycling system.