Electronic Waste Behaviour among Young Consumers

Theoretical background: Today's societies generate more and more household waste due to continuous industrial progress and increasing consumption. One special, fastest-growing type of household waste is electronic waste. It often contains multiple substances that pose a hazard to people and the environment. Apparently, electronic waste is not always recycled. Storing end-of-life electronics at home or disposing of them with other household waste, whereby the substances they contain cannot be recycled, are not uncommon behaviours. Users significantly impact the volume of generated and properly managed electronic waste. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to identify consumer behaviour regarding electronic waste in the Polish market. It was pursued through an analysis of their awareness and attitudes. We investigated consumer willingness to accept higher costs of electrical and electronic equipment and limited functionality to achieve a smaller environmental footprint. We further determined consumer-perceived availability of information about the negative impact of electronic waste, how it is managed, and the frequency and causes of its disposal. The last analysed area was consumer preferences regarding electronic waste collection and management systems. Research methods: The study employed a survey method. The original questionnaire consisted of 20 questions. The first five were classification questions, while the other fifteen focused on the study objective. The questions employed nominal, ordinal, and interval scales, including the Likert scale. The CAWI (computer-assisted web interview) survey involved 380 respondents who were conveniently sampled young consumers. Main findings: The study revealed that consumers exhibited good electronic waste awareness, which, alas, does not affect their environmental attitudes. The respondents were more willing to accept reduced functionality of electronics (8.7%) than higher costs (8.3%) to achieve a better environmental footprint. As much as 73% of the respondents did not agree with the statement that they felt well informed about the potential adverse environmental impact of electrical and electronic equipment when buying it. When online stores were concerned, the percentage was slightly lower but still high at 66%. The most common reason for disposing of equipment is the end of service life, except for mobile phones and powerbanks, which the respondents replaced when new models were available. The respondents believed take-back systems (29%) and scheduled bulky waste collection (29%) to be the most user-friendly forms of electronic waste disposal.