A behavioral approach to increase recycling behavior: An examinination of effect of environmental alteration and prompts

환경문제에서의 재활용 행동 증진을 위한 행동분석적 실험 연구 - 환경적 변화와 프롬트의 효과를 중심으로-

This study examined the effect of environmental alteration and prompts on recycling behavior. An A-B-BC with a control condition design was employed. Subjects in this study were college students, professors, and employees at a university building. After a baseline phase, environmental alteration was I effect in the next phase and both environmental alteration and prompts were in effect in the final phase for the control condition. The environmental alteration consisted of providing four separation containers for the paper cups, cans recyclable paper, and the disposable on each floor in the building. The prompts consisted of providing the information about the importance of environmental preservation and how to separate the materials in the appropriate containers using an information board and pamphlets. The dependent variables were (1) the number of cans collected in can container, (2) the number of paper cups collected in cup container, (3) the rate of correct separation of cans, (4) the rate of correct separation of paper cups, and (5) the weight of disposable. The rates of correct separations of cans and paper cups were obtained by calculating the percentage of thenumber of recyclable cans and paper cups in the corresponding containers. The results indicated that environmental alteration had positive effects on all the dependent variables. Also, when the prompts were added to the environmental alteration, the incremental effect of the prompts was demonstrated. The implications and limitations of theses findings were discussed and the direction of future studies was also proposed.