Understanding People's Recycling Behavior on Unwanted USB Cables and their Contribution to e‐Waste in Hong Kong through a Territory‐Wide Recycling Programme

Unwanted USB cables are an emergent type of electronic waste (or e‐waste) that is overlooked in Hong Kong. To address this issue, an action research project, “Off‐lines”, is launched to investigate people's knowledge and awareness of USB cable e‐waste and take initiatives to raise public awareness of its proper disposal. From February to May 2022, the study conducted a questionnaire survey and received 457 valid responses. The results revealed that each respondent has an average of nine unused USB cables and, based on this finding, it is estimated that there are 57.7 million excessive USB cables in Hong Kong. Such excessive ownership can be driven by the fact that ≈70% of respondents are unaware of the recyclability of USB cables, and the knowledge of USB cable recyclability varies depending on age, income level, and awareness of recycling locations. To resolve the problem, 150 collection points are established throughout Hong Kong and successfully collected over 7 700 unwanted USB cables from the public. Additionally, workshops are conducted that raised public awareness by upcycling this emergent e‐waste. This project highlights the urgent need to expand waste collection, promotion, and educational networks, with a particular focus on the elderly population.


Introduction
[13][14] In Hong Kong, the annual generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is ≈70 000 tonnes. [15]According to Chung et al. in 2011, [16] e-waste (including televisions, washing machines, air-conditioners, refrigerators, and computers) in Hong Kong was ≈80 443 tonnes per annum, while Deng et al. in 2017 [17] estimated that at least 330 tonnes of end-of-life mobile phones were generated in 2013, which suggests that a substantial number of USB cable waste would have also been generated.In terms of the import and export of e-waste, most households in Hong Kong would sell obsolete e-waste to private collectors where ≈65 000 tonnes of these waste were exported overseas every year. [18]On the other hand, more e-waste has also entered Hong Kong due to the e-waste importation ban policy in China. [19]Therefore, a formal recycling network and tightened regulatory controls on the import and export of e-waste are necessary in Hong Kong.To address this issue of growing e-waste, the government launched the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Programme in 2005 as the first voluntary producer responsibility scheme on e-waste, and further implemented the Producer Responsibility Scheme on WEEE (WPRS) in 2018, which requires sellers of regulated electrical equipment (REE, including air conditioner, washing machine, refrigerator, television, computer, printer, scanner and monitor) to provide free removal of used REE for customers who purchase new REE from the sellers.The WPRS has been extended to tumble dryers and dehumidifers since October 2023.However, USB cables are not included in these schemes.
Channels for USB cable recycling were not available until 2008, when the Computer and Communication Products Recycling Programme (CCRP) was initiated as the second voluntary producer responsibility scheme on WEEE.The CCRP provides an environmentally sound means for the public to dispose of their used computer equipment and communication products, including USB cables.Unfortunately, many of the designated public collection points are closed on weekends and holidays, which does not align with people's recycling practices.Although USB cables and other electronic accessories could also be collected by another territory-wide recycling network GREEN@COMMUNITY since 2020, overall, there are no specific programmes that focus on the promotion and assessment of USB cable recycling in Hong Kong.To our best knowledge, there are also no studies conducted to inform management of this emergent e-waste, particularly on the amount of waste, people's intention, awareness to recycle, or recycling behavior.
To address such issues on USB cable waste in Hong Kong, therefore, we conducted an action research. [20]The objectives of this action research were to: 1) evaluate how people use and manage USB cables by conducting a questionnaire survey; 2) expand collection networks by collaborating with different parties; and 3) promote e-waste recycling by initiating a territory-wide collection programme and an educational programme for the public.This study could further research towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which have been advocated by the United Nations since 2015, especially SDG 11 -Sustainable cities and communities, and SDG12 -Responsible consumption and production.Target 11.6 in SDG 11 is to reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management by 2030.Our study echoes with this target in terms of promoting e-waste recycling.Meanwhile, target 12.5 in SDG 12 aims to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, repair, recycling, and reuse by 2030.Our study provides suggestions for the government to achieve such target by improving the current recycling programmes, increasing the recycling rate of USB cables and reducing e-waste at source.

Amount of USB Cables Collected
Over 7 700 USB cables were collected from the 150 collection points during December 2021 to June 2022.These collection points were established at GREEN@COMMUNITY recycling points, shopping centres, residential and commercial buildings, corporate and small shops, shops of a commercial telecommunication operator, school campuses and social service centres (see Appendix B, Supporting Information, for the list of collection point).
The vast number of USB cables collected over just half a year indicated that there is an actual, eminent need for USB cable recycling in Hong Kong in addition to existing programmes, such as CCRP and GREEN@COMMUNITY.The effectiveness of these existing programmes might be undermined by their unclear guidelines on target recyclables, limited coverage and promotion, and inconvenient service hour, which may lower people's willingness to recycle e-waste.

Factors Affecting USB Cable Recycling Knowledge and Behavior
Out of the 457 respondents, only ≈30% of them had knowledge on USB cable recycling, and 27% knew about USB cable collection points, indicating that people's awareness and knowledge of USB cable recycling are generally insufficient.We also found that knowledge on the recyclability of USB cables varied with age class (GzLM Analysis of deviance,  2 3 = 14.57,P = 0.002, Figure 1), income level ( 2 5 = 21.32,P = 0.001, Figure 2) and whether respondents were aware of recycling locations ( 2 1 = 212.24,P < 0.001, Figures 1 and 2).
Respondents with 18-27 years old were more likely to know that USB cables could be recycled as compared to respondents with 28-47 years old (Tukey's tests, P < 0.05).In terms of income, respondents with $30 001-40 000 monthly income were more likely to know about the recyclability of USB cables as compared to respondents with $20000 monthly income or less (Tukey's tests, P < 0.05).These results were similar to previous studies in Sweden that showed that young people who lack the habit and attitude for recycling are easier to be influenced by the support for recycling, like the promotion on community recycling station location, while it is difficult to help older individuals develop a habit for recycling due to their stable lifestyles. [21]In terms of income level, people with lower income might have lower environmental awareness since assurance of financial security is a priority over values such as environmentalism, which will lower their tendency of recycling. [22]Whilst both age and income could explain partially the knowledge on USB recyclability, the major factor was whether respondents were aware of USB cable recycling collection points, with higher knowledge when respondents knew about locations to collect used USB cables (Figures 1 and 2).The studies conducted by Chan et al. in 2023 [23] in Hong Kong,  [24] in Changsha and Wang et al. in 2011 [25] in Beijing show that the convenience of recycling facilities and service is one of the key determinants of people's willingness and behavior in recycling.In other words, establishing an easily accessible recycling network is fundamental to increase the recycling rate of a city.

Hu et al. in 2023
Education level and gender, however, were not retained in the final model on cable recyclability, indicating that USB cable recycling knowledge was independent of education level and gender.This is opposite to the findings of Song et al. in 2012 [26] who revealed that education is a key factor where higher education levels would improve e-waste recycling.
For recycling frequency, only gender was retained in the final model which, however, did not differ from a null model without any explanatory variables, indicating that the socio-demographic factors collected in this study and the number of USB cables in use could not explain the recycling frequency (Likelihood ratio test between ordinal regression models with or without gender as a factor,  2 2 = 4.42, P = 0.110).Among those who knew about USB cable recycling and collection points, 35% of respondents had never visited recycling collection points, and ≈30% only visited once or less than once a year.This suggests that having knowledge about recycling may not have a direct impact on one's recycling behavior and that there may be a gap between knowledge/awareness and behavior.Such finding also echoes with that reported by Mühlthaler and Rademacher in 2017 [27] who investigated the attitude-behavior gap in plastic waste avoidance, where attitude did not necessarily correlate with behavior.Such knowledge-/awareness-behavior gap might be explained by the obstacles people experienced to impede them from recycling USB cables, which were primarily not knowing any collection points (71%), lack of knowledge of recyclability (67%), and inconvenient and insufficient collection points (67%).
Our results showed that the awareness of recycling points, age and income are the key factors driving recycling knowledge.On the other hand, however, lacks of knowledge and awareness on cable recyclability as well as accessibility to collection points discourage people to recycle.To facilitate USB cable recycling, we therefore suggest that the network of cable collection and promotional/educational works should be further extended, in locations targeting citizens with different socio-dempgraphic backgrounds (see below), in order to raise awareness and reduce inconvenience for the general public.

Excessive Ownership of USB Cables
Approximately 60% of the respondents reported owning between one and ten USB cables, while 40% reported owning more than 11.It was surprising to note that ≈15% of the respondents reported owning >21 USB cables.However, when considering the number of cables in use, only 25% of the respondents used more than six cables, whereas 75% used one to five cables.On average, each person owned nine unused cables.The primary reasons for possessing extra USB cables were inclusion with the electronic product purchased (85%) and for use as spares (50%).The reasons and ways to use extra USB cables did not differ among respondents with different socio-demographic backgrounds (Table 1).
Table 1.Variations in the probabilities of choosing various given options for 1) reasons having extra USB cables, 2) extra USB cable usage, 3) used cable disposal, 4) recycling obstacle and 5) desired collection points across respondents with different socio-demographic backgrounds.All given options (in italics) were tested against age class, gender, income, and education level of the respondents using binomial generalized linear models.N. S. Indicates that none of the factors were significant.For significant factors, results are displayed in ascending order from the group with the lowest to the highest probabilities, with statistically homogeneous subgroups (Tukey's tests, P > 0.05) as shown.For age class, 1 = 18-27 years old; 2 = 28-37 years old; 3 = 38-47 years old; 4 = 48 years old or above.For income levels, 1 = $10 000 or less; 2 = $10 001-20 000; 3 = $20 001-30 000; 4 = $30 001-40 000; 5 = $40 001-50 000; 6 = $50 001 or above in monthly income.Gender: M = male and F = female.The difference in the number of USB cables people owned and were actually using could be explained by the fact that consumers may keep spare cables in case for malfunctioning cables.Yet it was surprising to see over 50% of respondents had more than six extra USB cables, which shows excessive ownership.It indicated that consumers own a lot more than they actually need.This finding should be concerning as electrical devices relying on USB charging are becoming more common and thus the issue of excessive ownership is expected to become more severe if nothing is done to address it.
Forty percent of the respondents thought it is not necessary for the producer to include USB cables with the product, which reflected that they are receiving unwanted USB cables by default along with electronic products.Producers should consider allowing consumers to select if they need the cables to be included with the products, so as to proactively reduce the waste at source and maximise resource efficiency.Consumers can also review their ownership of USB cables and consider if they really need an extra one during purchases of electronic products.Such wastage of USB cables given along with electronic products is akin to the overpackaging problem commonly seen in the market, where unnecessary wrappings are present by default for individual product parts.Meanwhile, the USB Type-C charger unification is another strategy to help reduce the amount of USB cable waste as consumers can use the same cable to charge multiple devices, reducing the need to stock up different kinds of USB charger cables.

USB Cable Usage and Disposal
In terms of USB cable usage lifespan, ≈67% of respondents reported that the usual lifespan of their USB cables was over a year, while ≈19% reported a lifespan of 10-12 months.This suggests that the majority of USB cables are durable and do not require frequent replacement, rendering the stockpiling of spares unnec-essary.This also agrees with the result that the primary reason for disposing of USB cables was not due to short lifespan, but rather to other reasons.We further found that the lifespan of usage did not vary with age class of the respondents (Likelihood ratio test between ordinal regression models with or without age class as a factor,  2 3 = 7.25, P = 0.064), although respondents from older age classes had less proportions of short usage lifespans as compared to younger respondents (Figure 3).Two thirds of respondents (65%) disposed of waste USB cable as normal waste despite being recyclable.Older respondents were, however, less likely to dispose of used cables as normal waste (Figure 4) and also less likely to choose time cost as one of the recycling obstacles as compared to younger respondents (Figure 5, Table 1).This might reflect the contrasting values between the elderly and younger generations in product uses, where the elderly tend to believe that the products could be reused in the future and thus they would keep but not dispose of and buy new products. [28]The elderly might also have less access to information related to recycling as compared to younger generations, so they hoard unwanted electronic products instead of recycling them.
Respondents expressed that they were willing to drop off their unwanted cables if there were recycling points near train stations (88%), residential areas (81%), shopping malls (72%), and workplaces (57%).Such desired collection points varied strongly with socio-demographic backgrounds, however, with young respondents or respondents with less than $10 000 monthly income preferring school but not workplace as the collection point (as expected as most of these respondents were students).Middleaged respondents were more likely to prefer shopping mall as the collection point than younger respondents and, surprisingly, male respondents were less likely to prefer train station as the collection point than females (Table 1).This reflects that these locations could be considered for extending the recycling network and promoting recycling behavior in the future.Moreover, the waste collection strategy should be based on demographic backgrounds, taking into account especially younger generations at schools and working classes in malls or train stations.

Social Media Responses
Social media provides us with channels to interact with the public and promote our project using word-of-mouth power.This enables more people to learn about our project and participate in the waste USB cable collection programme as well as the upcycling workshop.During the project period, we issued 24 posts on Facebook and Instagram, and the public and media used these platforms to contact us for comments, questions, collaboration and interviews.
To enable the public to locate the nearest USB cables collection point, we further set up a website (www.bio.link/offlines) that lists the addresses of all our public collection points, questionnaires, workshop application forms, and tutorial videos.From December 2021 to August 2022, our website received 10 000 visits, with the majority being directed from our social media platforms, reaffirming the effectiveness of our social media promotion.
These results show that effective promotion strategies through social media platforms can educate and inform more people about recycling.Policy makers can also benefit by using social media to gather groups of people with similar interests and promote messages through the influence of key opinion leaders on ongoing recycling programs or any other latest environmental policy.

Upcycling Workshops
We collaborated with various parties to organize the USB cable upcycling workshops.Six free workshops were successfully held from March to May 2022, including five public workshops and one workshop for primary school students.These workshops reached 173 participants in total.In each workshop, participants were first given a presentation on the current situation of e-waste management in Hong Kong, followed by an artistic, upcycling session that turned the collected USB cables into keyrings.
Positive feedback was received from the participants who were inspired to think of alternative ways to upcycle unwanted cables and came up with ideas such as carrier bags for drinks.Participants expressed that this workshop provided them an opportunity to reflect on upcycling waste products, and they enjoyed the session where they were guided how to turn waste USB cables into knots for decorations and keyrings.To help participants learn more about the knot designs, we filmed five videos and uploaded them online for participants who could not complete them during the workshop time (see Appendix C, Supporting Information, for the links).These videos are free and accessible materials to promote upcycling of waste USB cables and broaden the impacts of the workshops.

Increase the Recycling Rate of USB Cables
In order to increase the recycling rate of USB cables and other similar electronic device accessories, the recycling programmes launched by the government could be modified in two ways based on our survey results: 1) strengthening the promotion on the recycling scope and 2) further expanding the recycling network.
As the recycling scope of the WPRS, the CCRP and the GREEN@COMMUNITY scheme are different, the Hong Kong Government should make it clear to the public on the type of items covered by each programme by proactive promotion and education.For example, USB cables can be treated as small electrical appliances for recycling.Some respondents in our survey reflected that they had query on how the e-waste collected by the government would be handled.We suggest that the goverment could appoint designated recycler to specialize on the recycling of USB cables, and increase the transparency of recycling processes to raise citizens' willingness to recycle.
Location of the recycling points is the another key driver to motivate citizens' recycling behavior.Our study revealed that people intended to recycle if the recycling points were near train stations, residential areas, and shopping malls.As the locations of most of the public collection points under the CCRP and the GREEN@COMMUNITY are far away from train stations, the government could consider expanding the current recycling network by collaborating with the private sector.Collection points could therefore be established in train stations and shopping malls to facilitate recycling by the public.

Reduction of Waste USB Cable Production
To reduce the amount of waste USB cables, the government and green groups can initiate the concept of resource sharing.Similar to shared bikes and shared chargers, they may consider establishing resource sharing stations for functional USB cables and other items collected from the recycling programmes.Resource sharing offers an alternative option for waste reduction and can avoid recycling items that are still usable.
In terms of the producers, the government could also strengthen the Producer Responsibility Scheme to request producers or importers of electronic products to reduce unnecessary packaging and accessories, and to promote eco-design in their products.The government may even consider asking the producers not to include accessories like USB cables, chargers, and earphones, in order to encourage consumers to purchase these accessories only when necessary.

Conclusion
Our research revealed a significant issue of excessive ownership of USB cables among consumers in Hong Kong, with each respondent owning an average of nine unused cables.Based on our findings, we estimated that there are 57.7 million excessive USB cables in Hong Kong, leading to resource waste and contributing to e-waste pollution.To address this issue, producers should provide options for consumers to choose whether they need USB cables with their products or not.Additionally, consumers should review their ownership of USB cables and dispose of them properly, either by recycling or giving them to those in need.Promotional campaigns on recycling collection points could enhance knowledge and awareness of recycling practices, and the establishment of a recycling network accessible to people with diverse socio-demographic backgrounds is necessary.
Overall, this action research project was the first attempt that has played a vital role in promoting sustainable practices and raising public awareness on USB cable recycling in Hong Kong and beyond.This project demonstrates the importance of collaborative efforts between individuals, the government, and businesses in encouraging recycling and addressing the global issue of ewaste pollution.

Experimental Section
This study is an action research, which involves a cyclical process of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.It began by identifying the problem of USB cable recycling in Hong Kong and developed a plan of action to address it.The action included a questionnaire survey, social media posts, collection services, and upcycling workshops.Ethical approval from the University of Hong Kong and the informed consents of all participants were obtained.
Questionnaire: A questionnaire survey was designed to assess knowledge, perceptions, and habits related to USB cable usage, disposal, and recycling in Hong Kong.The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions (see Appendix A, Supporting Information) and was distributed to the public who were at or above the age of 18 from January to August 2022 in Hong Kong, based on a convenience sampling approach via online surveys, emails, and social media platforms.In total 457 valid responses were collected.
The results of the questionnaire survey were used to inform our actions and guide our future planning.The data was used to identify areas where there was a lack of knowledge or awareness about e-waste recycling, as well as to understand people's cable waste recycling practice so as to frame the project actions and the suggestions on USB cable waste management.Specifically, the prevalence of the knowledge on the recyclability of USB cables was tested against socio-demographic factors of age class, income, gender, and education level, and whether respondents were aware of recycling collection points.Generalized linear models (GzLM, binomial errors with logit link function) were fitted to the data (with response being whether respondents knew that USB cables could be recycled) and the final model was selected via a backward selection procedure starting with all potential explanatory variables (age class: fixed, four levels; income level: fixed, six levels; education level: fixed, four levels, and awareness on recycling collection point: fixed, two levels).Instead of a linear regression model designed for continuous response variables, a binomial GzLM was conducted to accommodate the binary nature of the response variable (i.e., knowing or not knowing USB cable recyclability).The backward selection was conducted to identify a smaller subset of explanatory variables that were important in driving variations of the response.Recycling frequency was similarly analyzed using an ordinal regression with response being the level of recycling frequency and potential explanatory variables being age class, income, gender, education level and the number of USB cables in use.An ordinal regression instead of linear regression was adopted to allow for ordinal, multileveled responses in recycling frequency (measured in Likert scale).Differences in USB cable usage and recycling were further tested for respondents from different socio-demographic backgrounds.To achieve that, an ordinal regression was first conducted to test if the usage lifespans of USB cables varied with age class of the respondents.For other aspects in USB cable usage and recycling, including the reason having extra USB cables, ways to treat extra cables, disposal methods, obstacles to recycling and desired recycling locations, the prevalence of each given option in the questionnaire was tested against age class, gender, income, and education level using binomial GzLMs.Similar to previous analyses, binomial GzLMs and ordinal regressions were adopted to accommodate the binary or ordinal nature of the response variables.For all GzLMs, post-hoc comparisons were conducted for significant factors with more than two levels using Tukey's tests as implemented in the "emmeans" package in R. [29] All analyses were conducted using R 4.1.0. [30]ocial Media Posts: Since the study is an action research aiming to enhance the awareness of the general public in unwated USB cable issues, the impact was broadened through promotions in social media, upcycing workshops as well as physical collection service to facilitate the recycling of unwanted cables.During these processes, participant's feedback were monitored and evaluated, and we adjusted the deliverables accordingly.In terms of online promotion, social media platforms provide opportunities for user engagement, comments, and sharing.These platforms could also recommend content to users based on their preferences, interests and lifestyles. [31]To promote the project, engage more people who were concerned about environmental issues, and increase participation rates, Facebook (@off.lines.official)and Instagram (@off.lines.official)accounts were created as these were the most popular social networking platforms in Hong Kong. [32]Promotional posts related to newly added collection points, upcoming workshop schedules, relevant news, and knowledge were regularly published on both platforms from December 2021 to June 2022.The engagement and feedback were monitored from the social media posts to evaluate the effectiveness of the communication strategies and adjustments were made as needed.
Collection Service: Given that the numbers of collection points under the CCRP and GREEN@COMMUNITY are limited, the recycling network was expanded by inviting different parties to participate in our programme.Invitations were sent to various green groups, property management companies, and all the GREEN@COMMUNITY recycling points from November to December 2021 to seek their collaboration to establish collection points and provide a venue for the upcycling workshop.In total 150 collection points were established (see Appendix B, Supporting Information) and the collection process was monitored and evaluated to identify areas for improvement, such as collection point accessibility and convenience.
Upcycling Workshops: Workshops provide opportunities for participants to collaborate and learn together about a particular topic. [33]As the action research aims not only to promote recycling, but also to encourage participants to consider alternative solutions for unwanted cables and educate them about environmental issues, a series of upcycling workshops were included in the programme.The workshop was designed under the framework suggested by Ahmed and Asraf in 2018 [34] to include activities for participants to interact and learn collaboratively.Therefore, apart from a seminar, activities were designed in which the participants could upcycle USB cable wastes, reflect and be inspired to think of potential second lives for unwanted cables.The effectiveness of the workshop was monitored and evaluated to identify areas for improvement, such as participant engagement and learning outcomes.Feedback from participants was also used to guide the planning of upcoming works as needed.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Variation in the mean recyclability knowledge across respondents with different age classes (1 = 18-27 years old; 2 = 28-37 years old; 3 = 38-47 years old; 4 = 48 years old or above) and whether they were aware of collection points for used cables (green = no; blue = yes).Bars are mean + 1 S. D.; numbers above each bar indicate the sample sizes.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Variation in the probability of disposing of used USB cables as general waste across respondents with different age classes (1 = 18-27 years old; 2 = 28-37 years old; 3 = 38-47 years old; 4 = 48 years old or above).Bars are mean + 1 S. D.; numbers above each bar indicate the sample sizes.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Variation in the probability of choosing time cost as a recycling obstacle across respondents with different age classes (1 = 18-27 years old; 2 = 28-37 years old; 3 = 38-47 years old; 4 = 48 years old or above).Bars are mean + 1 S. D.; numbers above each bar indicate the sample sizes.