Sustainable cities: Examining the relationship between neighbourhood composition and recycling patterns in Canadian cities

摘要

This paper explores the relationship between urban design and household recycling practices in Canadian cities. Agrowing body of research links urban design with residents’ transportation behaviour, such as rates of driving and useof public transportation. However, the effect of urban design on other forms of environmentally sustainable behaviourhas not been as widely explored. Recycling is an important aspect of sustainability and the recycling activities ofurban residents require further attention. We examine the relationship between urban design and recycling practicesat the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in Canada using aggregated data merged from three secondary sources:the 2005–2006 Household and the Environment Survey conducted by Statistics Canada; the 2006 Census; andGordon and Shirokoff ’s (2014) classification of Canada’s urban neighbourhoods. The results demonstrate that thereis a significant relationship between urban development patterns and household recycling practices at the CMA-level,when controlling for demographic factors. We conclude that urban design is related to residents’ sustainabilitybehaviours in multiple, complex ways.