Survey and analysis of consumers' behaviour of waste mobile phone recycling in China

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of consumers toward waste mobile phone recycling on a national scale in China. With this goal in mind, a questionnaire survey was performed on a nationwide scale to explore consumers' behaviours, attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for recycling waste mobile phones. There were 1035 effective questionnaires, and the questionnaire was analysed with principal component analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results revealed that the actual service life of mobile phones in China is generally shorter than three years. Due to the current level of economic development and the traditional concept, only 47.9% of consumers agreed to pay for waste mobile phone recycling, and most consumers' WTP was 0–5% of the recycling costs. The main factors affecting the consumers' WTP were region, education level and monthly income. Therefore, mobile phone producers and the government should mostly share the responsibility of waste mobile phone recycling. With an improvement in public environmental awareness, it may be possible for consumers to afford recycling fees in the future, through either a prepaid deposit, or purchasing the product with the fee embedded in the price. In addition, it is important to support environmental education to promote environmental awareness. •The survey was conducted through an on-site and web-site method in China.•The questionnaire presented a material flow analysis of waste mobile phones.•The survey used willingness to pay (WTP) as the metric of consumer behavior.•Most consumers' willingness to pay was 0–5% of recycling costs.•The main factors affecting WTP were region, education level and monthly income.