How Do Stated Knowledge and Attitudes Influence End-of-Current-Use Disposition of Electronics?

When finished with an electronic device, consumers choose between storing, recycling, giving away, trading-in, reselling, or throwing it away. This choice has environmental and data privacy implications, e.g., reuse of devices is generally environmentally preferable to recycling, which is better than throwing away in the trash. Through a survey of 4000 U.S. consumers and regression analysis, this study analyzes how stated attitude and knowledge connect to consumers’ previous and planned disposition choices. The binomial regression model (pseudo-R2=13%) models the decision to store or not store a device. Important factors leading to increased likelihood of storing are data security concerns when recycling (+14%) or reselling (+9%), lack of knowledge of recycling (+10%), and wanting a backup of data (+11%). Notably, data security concerns when recycling or reselling were significant for past behavior, but not for intended behavior. This suggests consumers take data security more seriously when faced with the actual disposition decision. Multinomial regression (pseudo-R2=15%) is used to model which non-storage option is chosen. Knowledge of (+47%) and perceived convenience (+9%) of recycling programs were important in consumers choosing to recycle, reselling of devices was strongly influenced by knowledge of reuse markets.