Recycling and Morality: A Critical Review of the Literature

In affluent industrial societies, people tend to mentally classify environmental behaviors like recycling within the domain of morality. Intentions in this area are not based on a thorough calculation (conscious or unconscious) of the balance of costs and benefits but are a function of beliefs in what is right or wrong. I provide a brief review of the literature with the intention of uncovering problems and shortcomings in the framework of the Subjective Expected Utility model and the Theory of Reasoned Action with regard to understanding recycling behavior, and discuss examples of misleading policy conclusions. Within the framework of cognitive psychology, Schwartz's model of altruistic behavior offers a more satisfying starting point for understanding recycling behavior in affluent industrial societies.