Given the aim of motivating householders to behave in a recycling-friendly manner, there is a need to understand consumers’ recycling behaviour. This paper documents and analyses acceptability and awareness of a pre-recycling society, through a survey carried out in the region of Minsk, Belarus. The results show a large number of people have no strong awareness about separate collection of household waste for recycling. By analysing the pre-recycling behaviour of Minsk citizens and substantive comparison with literature studies of a more mature recycling society such as Sweden, we indicate common sociodemographic variables for both cases and determine that these sociodemographic characteristics will directly influence recycling behaviour in countries like Belarus. It is also noted that the lack of recycling habit cannot directly predict subsequent recycling behaviour on the stage of implementation the recycling system.
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