THE INFLUENCE OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL MOTIVATIONS ON ATTITUDES TOWARD WASTE SEPARATION AMONG HOUSEHOLDS: SPECIAL REFERENCE TO COLOMBO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL AREA

Abstract

. Introduction Millions of tons of municipal solid waste are produced in Sri Lanka, which has developed into a life-threatening societal issue. The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seeks to prevent, reduce, recycle, and reuse waste, but Sri Lanka still needs to achieve this goal. Waste separation is one of the critical components of recyclables management. Hence, this research aims to investigate the influence of external and internal motivations on attitudes toward waste separation among households in the Colombo Municipal Council Area. 2. Research Methodology The study used the deductive approach to examine the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Attitude-Behavior-Context Theory (ABC), which leads to a waste separation attitude. Cross-sectional data were collected by administering the structured questionnaire to 384 households in the Colombo Municipal Council Area, employing the purposive sampling technique. Multiple regression was used for the analysis with the technical assistance of SPSS 25 software. 3. Findings and Discussion The findings revealed that external motivations such as policy regulation, facilitating conditions, subjective norms, and internal motivations, including moral norms, self-efficacy, and awareness of consequences, significantly and positively impact attitudes toward waste separation among households in the Colombo Municipal Council Area. In contrast, incentives do not substantially affect attitudes toward waste separation. 4. Conclusion and Implications The findings implied that policymakers should make an integrative effort to promote waste separation since the accumulation of internal and external motivations impacts attitude. Moreover, the findings support the government in developing policy regulations and recommend awareness campaigns at the school level to induce household waste separation. Besides, this study contributes to the existing literature about attitudes toward waste separation among households from a developing country perspective.