Analysis on public perception, user-satisfaction, and publicity for WEEE collecting system in South Korea: A case study for Door-to-Door Service

The South Korean government is applying the Target Management System (TMS) for collecting and recycling electrical and electronic equipment waste under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Based on the TMS, approximately 280,230 t of WEEE-compliant waste was recycled in 2017. Building on these recycling achievements, Korea government established a secondary long-term target about 8.6 kg/cap yr. by 2023 as there is sufficient interest in building and managing an efficient WEEE collecting channel in Korea. In this study, we investigate the current status of public perception, user satisfaction, and public relation (PR), as well as strategies that focus on promoting the door-to-door (D-to-D) service, a free public collecting channel in Korea. A survey questionnaire was conducted using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method with stratified sample of 2000 interviewees. The survey results indicated that nearly one in two people (48.2%) were aware of the D-to-D service, and this percentage was higher than the annual surveys for the last three years. In addition, 90.7% of the users of the D-to-D service expressed a positive opinion, particularly with regards to the service being available for free. From the PR perspective, 58.9% of respondents felt that current PR level were unsatisfied despite many outstanding advantages of the D-to-D service, and 86.0% of respondents stated that the frequency of the PR activities for the D-to-D service should be increased. These results are expected to utilize as basic information to establish future-strategies for improving the service quality of D-to-D system with vulnerability complement.