The role of time in pro-environmental behaviours uptake: the case of waste sorting in Italy

Waste recycling and sorting are essential processes for realising the circular economy paradigm. Beyond socio-economic factors, pro-social behaviours play a crucial role in achieving this goal. However, engaging in pro-environmental actions can be influenced by various costs, particularly the availability of time. This work highlights the relevance of time pressure and time-saving technologies in the uptake of pro-environmental behaviours. We use an Italian cross-section of households, the Multipurpose Survey on Household (MSH), that includes information on waste sorting behaviour for the year 2018 to test the hypotheses that households with more leisure time and using time-saving technologies are associated with improved waste sorting behaviour. We further test whether these impacts are more pronounced when municipalities are served by effortful waste collection systems, like bring sites and civic amenities. Our results support all hypotheses even when we control for a full set of neighbourhood and social capital effects. We conclude that the time availability is a relevant and understudied element in the consideration of the drivers of pro-environmental behaviour.