Factors influencing consumption and anti-consumption of recycled water: Evidence from Australia

The purpose of this article is to identify factors influencing the Australian general public’s consumption and anti-consumption decisions about recycled water from user generated content. User generated content in the form of extensive online reviews provided on popular national newspaper sites by the Australian general public (n = 250) was analysed. Qualitative data analysis software NVivo 11 was used to identify factors influencing consumption and anti-consumption of recycled water and to understand whether or not the users’ perceptions towards consumption and anti-consumption of recycled water is related to user well-being. The results obtained highlight three macro categories such as water shortages, anti-consumption of recycled water, and consumption of recycled water on the basis of thematic relevance and conceptual coherence. Water shortages (93.2%) experienced within the context is identified as an antecedent leading to consumption and/or anti-consumption related decisions by the public about recycled water. Users’ anti-consumption decisions (97.2%) about recycled water are linked to well-being perceptions. The four well-being dimensions identified as micro categories in this study that influence users’ anti-consumption of recycled water are financial, physical, psychological and social dimensions. Users’ decision to consume recycled water (47.2%) relates to micro categories such as acceptance of recycled water, users’ knowledge of available alternatives to recycled water, users’ understanding of recycled water and users’ awareness of alternative solutions that could reduce the general public’s negative perceptions about direct consumption of recycled water. The findings obtained from this study are useful to the Australian context and other international contexts where extreme climate conditions result in water shortages and the general public seems to be reluctant to accept alternative water sources.