Prevention and Recycling Behaviours Across the EU

The chapter offers an empirical investigation of individual motivations behind waste reduction and recycling. More specifically, it aims at verifying if one type of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) is more correlated with one of the two behaviours (minimization and recycling) or the other. Using Eurobarometer data, we note that extrinsic motivation has a higher effect on recycling habits than on minimization behaviour while the reverse is true for intrinsic motivation. Moreover, intrinsic motivation plays a role for the recycling of particular kinds of waste such as hazardous wast