Environmental Awareness vs. Actual Behavior: Why Does Portugal Fail to Meet Waste Management Targets?

Portuguese society has consistently shown significant environmental awareness. Not only was Portugal the first country in the world to recognize, in 1976, the fundamental right to a healthy and balanced environment, but public opinion surveys reveal a pronounced concern about water pollution and climate change, particularly among the younger population.

Despite this, there is one environmental area in which Portugal has always failed: waste treatment. Persistently, Portugal fails, by a large margin, to meet European goals for reducing landfill waste. This means that much waste that could be recycled is, indiscriminately, deposited in landfills, thus losing the economic and environmental value of paper, plastic, glass, electronic components, etc. As Graça Martinho writes in a recently published opinion piece, “despite the increase in the network of recycling bins and awareness campaigns, in 2023, 76% of urban waste was deposited in unsorted containers.” In fact, the percentage of waste separated by consumers has increased only marginally over the past few years

After years of environmental education policies, news continues to reveal the concern of both central and local governments with an issue that may soon lead to yet another infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission and to the payment of millions of euros in fines for violating European rules and targets.

There are several causes for this failure, such as insufficient infrastructure and the lack of sophistication in the techniques used. However, perhaps the most significant cause is the lack of adherence by the people, because, without consumer separation at the point of disposal, no waste policy can be effective. The consumer is the essential link that decides, first and foremost, whether their waste could potentially have a second life or, on the contrary, if it is condemned to be deposited in a landfill for decomposition.

Many techniques have been studied over the years to improve consumer adherence, such as financial and non-financial incentives, or adapting management systems to facilitate waste separation, such as door-to-door collection systems. Although all systems have advantages and disadvantages, we know that the problem is more complex and requires the consideration of more specific factors that cannot be overlooked.

First of all, we must consider three factors:

• Personal attitudes (“To what extent do I value recycling?”) dominant in a particular community. Naturally, if people, or certain groups of people, have a negative or indifferent opinion about recycling, the likelihood of them doing it will be lower.
• Social norms (“What do I think others do or value?”). If people think that most people around them don’t recycle (for example, by seeing recyclable waste in regular trash or observing others not recycling), they are more likely not to recycle.
• Perception of control (“How much control do I believe I have over whether or not I can recycle?”). We may provide people with a generally convenient collection method, but they may have a low perception of control—for example, living in a shared house where they do not control waste management or not having space to separate waste—and this will have a negative impact on their behavior.

But the complexity of the issue does not end there, as recycling behavior also varies depending on the material being recycled. Not all recyclable material is recycled the same way or in the same place, so personal attitudes, social norms, and perceptions of control may differ for each type of material. For example, if we see people recycling paper, glass, and packaging frequently, but rarely see people using the oil or battery recycling bins, it is natural that we perceive that others recycle those materials less. There are also factors that may be specific to each material. For example, when recycling computers and mobile phones, we may have to consider consumer privacy concerns, which generally do not apply to the recycling of glass or plastic.

It is concluded, therefore, that an effective and informed public policy must be designed for a specific community and a specific problem. An approach that assumes that what worked in one community will be effective everywhere and for all types of waste is always less effective and has a high risk of not achieving the desired results. This is what has happened in Portugal, and after public and private investment in environmental education, we are no closer to meeting the targets we committed to, which is as undesirable environmentally as it is costly in terms of European fines.