International Journal of Waste Resources

Abstract

Categorization and Sorting for Waste Management

Dupre Mickael

The success of the waste management policy is based on good sorting practice by the largest number of citizen. There are on the French territory more than 300 devices sorting instructions, collection or different labels. Sorting instructions depend technologies deployed in sorting and recycling management. Sorting instructions are essentially defined by technological factors. The users have to learn and respect the categorization of waste defined by the managers. The national average is 17% of collections which are refused entry sorting centers due to poor sorting. The goal of our study is to explore the link between the sorting instructions and the categorization process. For this, 191 individuals did a categorization task of several wastes. Analysis of the data shows that people use differents criterias of classification. More specifically, more natural categories such as material waste or use depending on the object are most frequently used by individuals. The results also show that the categorization according to the criteria of recyclability increases with knowledge sorting instructions and frequency of practice sorting.