Background:

Recycling and waste separation is one of the most important policies for the management of municipal solid waste, and notwithstanding the importance of recycling especially at the school age, little research have been conducted in this field.

Focus of the Article:

In this quasi-experimental study, five steps of community-based social marketing (CBSM) were used for changing of the recycling behavior (RB).

Research Question:

Do CBSM strategies increase use of recycling containers versus the sole availability of containers?

Program Design/Approach:

The intervention was implemented in five steps and through seven CBSM strategies that include communication, social diffusion, convenience, incentives, social norms, commitment, and prompts.

Importance to the Social Marketing Field:

Since the RB will be influenced by environmental context, it cannot be assumed that application of CBSM theory is effective in school field. Therefore, the findings of this study are used to determine the effectiveness of environmental changes based on CBSM theory in the school field.

Method:

One thousand four hundred fifty-three male and female students from fourth to sixth grade in Bushehr, Iran, were evaluated in intervention and control groups from December 2018 to May 2019. In intervention group, CBSM steps were implemented, and in the control group, only blue bins and containers for recyclable materials were provided. To assess behavior change, a questionnaire consisting of three sections of demographic information, knowledge, and barrier questions was used. RB was evaluated by daily weighing waste and recyclable materials (separated) in two groups from 10 days before to 4 months after intervention. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Version 16.0).

Results:

Results reveal that CBSM based strategies increased knowledge in the intervention group versus the control group. Also, CBSM strategies significantly increased the amount of recycling and reduced the waste in the intervention group. The results of this study showed that the sole availability of containers does not increase RB and reduce waste; applying CBSM based strategies is very useful and effective in removing barriers and increasing RB in schools.

Recommendation for Research:

It is recommended to compare the effectiveness of the application of only some CBSM strategies such as social norms, incentives, and diffusion versus all CBSM strategies for changing of RB in school setting.

Limitation:

A limitations of this study is that the number of students in the two groups is not the same due to the random selection of schools. Additionally, we could not control for students’ textbook content on recycling.

中文翻译：

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基于社区的社会营销（CBSM）在提高小学回收行为（RB）中的应用

背景：

回收和废物分类是管理城市固体废物的最重要政策之一，尽管回收特别是在学龄期很重要，但在这一领域进行的研究很少。

文章重点：

在此准实验研究中，基于社区的社会营销（CBSM）的五个步骤用于改变回收行为（RB）。

研究问题：

CBSM策略是否增加了回收容器的使用量而不是容器的唯一可用性？

程序设计/方法：

干预通过五个步骤并通过七个CBSM策略实施，这些策略包括沟通，社会传播，便利，激励措施，社会规范，承诺和提示。

对社会营销领域的重要性：

由于RB会受到环境环境的影响，因此不能假设CBSM理论的应用在学校领域是有效的。因此，本研究的结果可用于基于CBSM理论在学校领域确定环境变化的有效性。

方法：

从2018年12月至2019年5月，在干预和对照组中对伊朗Bushehr的4年级至6年级的143名男女学生进行了评估。在干预组中，实施了CBSM步骤，在对照组中，仅提供了可回收材料的蓝色垃圾箱和容器。为了评估行为变化，使用了由人口统计学信息，知识和障碍问题三部分组成的问卷。通过从干预前10天到干预后4个月，每天称量废物和可回收材料（分开），对RB进行评估。使用“社会科学统计软件包”（版本16.0）对数据进行了分析。

结果：

结果表明，与对照组相比，基于CBSM的策略增加了干预组的知识。此外，CBSM策略显着增加了回收量，并减少了干预组的浪费。这项研究的结果表明，容器的唯一可用性不会增加RB并减少浪费。运用基于CBSM的策略对于消除障碍和增加学校的RB是非常有用和有效的。

研究建议：

建议仅将某些CBSM策略（如社会规范，激励和扩散）与所有CBSM策略在学校环境中改变RB的效果进行比较。

局限性：

这项研究的局限性在于，由于学校的随机选择，两组中的学生人数并不相同。此外，我们无法控制学生的课本回收的内容。