Factors influencing household-level positive and negative solid waste management practices in rapidly urbanizing cities: insights from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Household solid waste management (HSWM) practices are a critical aspect of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems. Despite efforts to implement source separation and recycling at the household level in developing countries, negative practices such as illegal dumping and backyard burning remain ubiquitous, particularly in rapidly urbanizing cities. Source separation and recycling behaviors have been rarely studied in such cities. Moreover, studies on illegal dumping and backyard burning using robust tools and frameworks are practically non-existent. This study aims to (a) estimate the prevalence of ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ behaviors for different HSWM practices, and (b) identify their observable and non-observable influencing factors. The focus is Santa Cruz, a rapidly urbanizing city of Bolivia. Household surveys ( n = 305) are used to establish the connections between latent constructs (e.g. awareness, satisfaction), and observable variables (e.g. location, socio-demographic characteristics) with each behavior. This is achieved through the combination of exploratory factor analysis to validate the constructs to be included in the analysis, and structural equation modeling to identify the most influential factors. Two causal models are developed, one for the positive behaviors (i.e. source separation, recyclables donation, recyclables selling, and use of drop-off facilities), and the other for the negative behaviors (i.e. illegal dumping and backyard burning). Results indicate that, satisfaction with the MSWM service has a negative and significant influence on the prevalence of illegal dumping and backyard burning behaviors, while the remoteness of the household (i.e. distance to the city center) has a positive significant effect on the prevalence of these behaviors. Source separation and recyclable donation are influenced positively by latent constructs such as attitudes, knowledge, and awareness. For recyclables selling and use of drop-off stations, income and location are the most relevant factors, although with smaller effects.