Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 2635: Pinpointing the Barriers to Recycling at Destination (Sustainability)

This paper aims to gain further understanding of the barriers that prevent tourists at tourist destinations from recycling. Methodologically, a survey was carried out with a questionnaire, reaching 371 units through a convenience sampling procedure on the island of Gran Canaria. The measuring instruments consisted of a Likert ‘beliefs’ scale, comprising statements related to a wide range of recycling barriers, as well as both sociodemographic and situational information. Firstly, we performed an exploratory factor analysis on the barriers scale, and several obstacles to recycling were identified, such as a lack of knowledge and familiarity, blaming of the system of collection, assumed incompatibility with a relaxing holiday, erroneous beliefs about environmental usefulness, disregard towards the place being visited and a certain sense of detachment, the non-existence of incentives, and an unwillingness to comply with perceived demands. Secondly, by means of ANOVA tests, we measured the causal relationship between these barriers to recycling and the tourists’ sociodemographic and situational profiles. The practical implications shed light on how to overcome the difficulties that occur for the tourist at the destination with regards to recycling, by considering the tourists’ beliefs and their sociodemographic and situational background.