Does Internet Use Promote the Garbage Classification Behavior of Farmers? – Empirical Evidence from Rural China

Garbage classification, as an environmental protection behavior carried out all over the world, has huge impact on the development of sustainability. Which means, it is particularly vital to study the methods how to make garbage classification works well. With the popularity of Internet use, its role in environmental remediation is increasingly apparent. Therefore, this paper is based on the garbage classification implementation of rural residents, trying to research whether the Internet can promote garbage sorting behavior. Using data from China Land Economic Survey (CLES), this study screens out 2573 rural household samples and adopts binary classic model of Probit to empirically examines the quantitative impact of the use of Internet on the garbage sorting behavior of rural residents. After completing the demonstration, the following conclusions are reached: (1) As rural residents use the Internet, their garbage sorting behavior has improved. For those who use the Internet often, they are 14.5% more possibly to comply with garbage classification than those who don`t use the Internet very much. (2) Among individual characteristics, the differences in age, health status and education level have an obvious influence on the garbage classification behavior of farmers. (3) Farmers in areas where the government implements incentives and penalties are more likely, compared to areas without those interventions, to classify their garbage; farmers in areas with publicity reports are more likely to conduct garbage classification than those in areas without them. Therefore, this study is helpful to give play to the positive impact of Internet use and improve the garbage classification behavior to provide a reference.