Should Waste Separation Be Mandatory? A Study on Public’s Response to the Policies in China

The implementation of effective waste separation policy is an important pathway to guide the public to actively participate in the waste separation action. This study focused on exploring the Chinese public’s response to the rigid and flexible waste separation policies from the perspectives of understanding, willingness to support, and willingness to implement. We used a big data mining technique to obtain 10,057 entries of the Chinese public’s response to the mandatory waste separation policy. The results showed that “public’s understanding–support willingness-implement willingness” regarding mandatory waste separation policy was characterized by a U-shaped response. Specifically, the public’s understanding and willingness to implement the rigid waste separation policy were relatively high in the short term, but their willingness to support this policy was relatively low and became increasingly low over time. Particularly, “troublesome” implementation was deemed to the main reason for the public’s low willingness to support the rigid waste separation policy. In addition, we further obtained the sample data of the Chinese public regarding the flexible waste separation policy through the situational survey. Contrary to the response characteristics of mandatory waste separation policy, the results showed that “public’s understanding-support willingness-implement willingness” regarding flexible waste separation policy was characterized by an inverted U-shaped response, and the Chinese public showed more positive sentiment regarding the willingness to support and implement. The results have important implications for guiding the public to actively participate in the waste separation action.