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The Implementation of the Theory of Planned Behavior in an Agent-Based Model for Waste Recycling: A Review and a Proposal

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Agent-Based Modeling of Sustainable Behaviors

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

In the near future, the waste management sector is expected to reduce substantially the adverse effects of garbage on the environment. However, the increasing complexity of the current waste management systems makes the optimization of the waste management strategies and policies challenging. For this reason, waste prevention is the most desirable goal to achieve. Despite this, low levels of household recycling represent the key factor that complicates the current scenario. Keeping this in mind, the present work investigates the determinants of recycling behavior through the development of an agent-based model. Particularly, we examined what would induce households to increase the probability to engage in recycling behaviors on the base of the individual attitude and sensitivity to social norms. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been implemented as agents’ cognitive model in environmental studies with the aim to predict recycling outcomes. Furthermore, in order to increase the realism of the simulation and the adherence of the model with the theory, we followed two strategies: firstly, we used real data to model a city district (Diong, Internship Report: Integrated Waste Management in Kaohsiung City, 2012). Secondly, we made use of the coefficients of the structural equation model presented in the work by Chu and Chiu (J Appl Soc Psychol 33(3):604–626, 2003) to build the agents’ cognitive model. As a whole, the results are in line with literature on descriptive social norms. Furthermore, the results indicate that the introduction of descriptive social norms represents a valuable strategy for public policies to improve household recycling: however, injunctive social norms are needed first.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The full model, code, and documentation is available via the www.openabm.org website.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Andrea Scalco, Andrea Ceschi & Riccardo Sartori

  2. Higher Institute of Comprehensive Professions, Nalut, Libya

    Itad Shiboub

  3. Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Jean-Marc Frayret

  4. School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Stephan Dickert

  5. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Stephan Dickert

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  1. Andrea Scalco
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  2. Andrea Ceschi
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  3. Itad Shiboub
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  4. Riccardo Sartori
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  5. Jean-Marc Frayret
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  6. Stephan Dickert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Scalco .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Informática, Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Amparo Alonso-Betanzos

  2. Facultad de Informática, Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Noelia Sánchez-Maroño

  3. Facultad de Informática, Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Oscar Fontenla-Romero

  4. Information and Computational Science, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom

    J. Gary Polhill

  5. Socio-Economic and Geographical Sciences, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom

    Tony Craig

  6. Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Javier Bajo

  7. Departamento de Informática y Automática, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan Manuel Corchado

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Scalco, A., Ceschi, A., Shiboub, I., Sartori, R., Frayret, JM., Dickert, S. (2017). The Implementation of the Theory of Planned Behavior in an Agent-Based Model for Waste Recycling: A Review and a Proposal. In: Alonso-Betanzos, A., et al. Agent-Based Modeling of Sustainable Behaviors. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46331-5_4

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